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TWENTIETH  CENTURY  LIBRARY        Jan.,  is 

tiLY.  SUBSCRIPTION  PRICE,  $4.^0  A  YEAR. 


IATIONAL  OWNERSHIP 


OF 


RAILWAYS 


Rev.  CHARLES  H.  VAIL 


NEW    YORK 

THE  HUMBOLDT  LIBRARY 

64    FIFTH     AVENUE 


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Social  Science  Library 

v  v 

3  Paper,  250.  each.     Cloth,  extra.  750,  eacn. 


\w 

* 


J  NOW   READY.  J> 

1.  SIX  CENTURIES  OF  WORK   AND   WAGES.      Bv  i> 

JAMES  E.  THOROLD  ROGERS,  M.  P.     Abridged,  with  J\ 

charts  and  summary.   By  W.  D.  P.  BLISS.   Introduc-  /. 

x  tion  by  PROP.  R.  T.  ELY.  |/ 

2.  THE  SOCIALISM  OF  JOHN  STUART  MILL.      The  € 
Y                                only  collection  of  Mill's  writings  on  Socialism.  Q 

a    THE  SOCIALISM  AND  UNSOCIALISM  OP  THOMAS  C 

CARLYLE.     A  collection  of  Carlyle's  social  writ-  h 
3                               ings;  together  with  Joseph  Mazzini's  famous  essay 

1  protesting  against  Carlyle's  views.     Vol.  I.  f) 

4.    THE  SOCIALISM  AND  UNSOCIALISM  OF  THOMAS  $ 

CARLYLE.    Vol.  II.  J, 

B.    WILLIAM   MORRIS,  POET,   ARTIST,  SOCIALIST.  A 
3                               A  selection  from  his  writings  together  with  a  sketch; 

4  of  the  man.    Edited  by  FRANCIS  WATTS  LEE.  €) 

3  6.    THE  FABIAN   ESSAYS.  ^     American  edition,  with,  f 

7.    THE  ECONOMICS  OF  HERBERT   SPENCER.    By 
W.  C.  OWEN. 

V 
3 


introduction  and  notes,  by  II.  G.  WILSIIIRE.  €> 

HE  ECONOMICS  OF  HERBERT   SPE 
W.  C.  OWEN. 

8.    THE  COMMUNISM  OF  JOHN  RUSKIN. 


^  HORACE  GREELEY;  FARMER,  EDITOR,  AND  SQ. 

7  C1AL1ST.    By  CHARLES  SOTHERAN. 

3 

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3 : , 

The  Humboldt  Publishing  Co. 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTUR  Y LIBRAR  Y 


NATIONAL  OWNERSHIP 


OF 


RAILWAYS 


V    " 


Nearly  Ready. 


The  author  has  a  book  dealing  with  Modern,  Social    and    Eco- 
nomic Problems. 


Among  the  topics  treated  are  :  The  Economic  Evolution;  The 
Production,  Distribution  and  Consumption  of  Wealth, 
Money,  Value,  and  Wages;  The  Question  of  Interest; 
Competition  vs.  Combination;  Industrial  Democracy,  or 
Democratic  Government;  The  Moral  Strength  of  Co-Opera- 
tion;  The  Liquor  Traffic;  Poverty;  Labor  Saving  Machin- 
ery; Taxation;  Illiteracy;  Industrial  Depressions  and  Crises; 
The  Condition  of  Labor,  Past  and  Present — Comparison; 
Capitalism  and  Economic  Waste;  Etc.,  Etc. 


NATIONAL    OWNERSHIP 


OF 


RAILWAYS 


BY 

Rev.  CHARLES  H.  VAIL 


NEW  YORK 

THE  HUMBOLDT  LIBRARY 

64  FIFTH  AVENUE. 


COPYRIGHT  1897. 
BY 

Rev.  CHARLES  H.  VAIL. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I.     Public  Highways,             .             .  .             .6 

II.     Analogy,                                    ,  7 

III.  Accumulation  of  Wealth,              .  .              .8 

IV.  Corruption  of  Politics,              .  .              .            n 
V.     Discriminations,     .              .             .  15 

VI.     The  Remedy,             .             .  .21 

VII.     Method  of  Purchase,     .             .  .                      22 

VIII.     The  Cost,     .             .             .             .  .       23 

IX.     Economy  of  Public  Ownership,  .          .            25 

X.     Experience,             .             .               .  .             .33 

XI.      Public  Safety  Demands  Government  Ownership,  36 

XII.     Objections  Considered,  37 


303090 


INTRODUCTION. 


Society  is  'an  organism  and  as  such  is  constantly 
evolving  new  relations  and  bringing  into  the  fore- 
ground new  duties.  There  is  nothing  in  all  past  his- 
tory to  correspond  with  the  rapid  changes  now  going 
on  in  the  civilized  world.  These  new  conditions  have 
brought  us  problems  that  command  our  most  earnest 
attention. 

Perhaps  no  greater  question  has  appeared  above  the 
horizon  of  the  industrial  world  than  the  relation  of 
the  government  to  the  railways  of  the  country.  Shall 
the  railroads  be  owned  and  operated  as  private  or  as 
public  property  ?  This  is  the  point  at  issue.  Believ- 
ing with  many  others  that  public  ownership  is  the 
only  solution  of  the  railroad  problem,  I  offer  in  evi- 
dence of  this  position  the  following  reasons  for  thf 
faith  which  is  in  us. 


NA  T ZONAL  O  WNILRSHIP  OF  RAIL  WA  VS. 


I.    PUBLIC  HIGHWAYS. 

The  Railways  are  Public  Highways  and  as  such,  be- 
ing necessary  to  transportation  as  a  means  of  exchange, 
they  should  be  owned  and  operated  ty  Society  in  the 
interest  of  Society. 

Highways  are  not  private  but  public  institutions, 
and  when  government  lets  out  the  construction  of  its 
highways,  giving  to  corporate  bodies  the  privilege  of 
taxing  those  who  use  them,  there  is  always  retained  a 
superintending  power,  a  right  to  regulate  the  charges 
imposed  upon  the  public.  That  the  government  has  a 
right  to  prescribe  rates  has  been  so  well  established 
by  judicial  decisions  that  it  is  no  longer  a  question 
for  discussion.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  State  to  provide 
inter-communication,  and  the  chartering  of  a  railroad 
by  a  private  company  is  for  the  purpose  of  performing 
said  duty  for  the  State.  Says  Chief  Justice  Black: — 
"  A  railway  is  a  public  highway  for  the  public  benefit, 
and  the  right  of  the  corporation  to  exact  a  uniform, 
reasonable,  stipulated  toll  from  those  who  pass  over 
it,  does  not  make  its  main  use  a  private  one.  The 
public  have  an  interest  in  such  a  road  when  it  belongs 
to  a  corporation  as  clearly  as  they  would  if  it  were 
free,  or  if  the  tolls  were  payable  to  the  State." 

This  fact  is  well  stated  by  Mr.  Stickney  in  the  fol- 
lowing language  : — "  Whoever  builds  or  operates  a 
railroad  performs  the  functions  of  the  government 
under  a  license  or  authority  from  the  government." 
To  quote  an  eminent  Judge: — "Railway  companies 
must  be  considered  as  trustees  or  agents  of  the  State, 
entrusted  with  certain  of  its  powers  for  the  purpose 
of  effecting  particular  objects  coming  within  the  legi- 


NATIONAL  OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS.         7 

timate  ends  of  government.  Upon  no  other  theory  is 
it  possible  to  justify  the  imposition  of  taxes  to  for- 
ward the  enterprise  in  which  they  are  engaged,  or  the 
exercise  by  them  of  the  right  of  '  eminent  domain  V 

This  doctrine  has  been  affirmed  by  the  Supreme 
Courts  of  many  states  as  well  as  by  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court,  and  may  now  be  regarded  as  settled.* 
Such  being  the  Nation's  prerogative,  why  should  not 
the  Nation  assume  its  duty  directly,  especially  if  its 
agents  are  found  to  be  oppressing  the  people  whom 
the  government  is  bound  to  protect  ? 
II.  ANALOGY. 

Every  civilized  country  has  found  it  necessary  to 
own  its  own  highways.  Experience  has  shown  that 
interests  of  such  vast  importance  cannot  safely  be  en- 
trusted to  private  parties.  The  owners  of  property 
are  quite  inclined  to  use  it  to  subserve  their  own  in- 
terest. If  the  people  would  secure  the  benefits  they 
must  own  the  property.  All  the  arguments  in  favor 
of  placing  other  highways  under  public  control,  are  as 
valid  when  applied  to  highways  of  iron. 

James  A.  Garfield  once  said  in  Congress  :  "  Since  the 
dawn  of  history,  the  great  thoroughfares  have  be- 
longed to  the  people,  have  been  known  as  the  king's 
highways,  or  the  public  highways,  and  have  been  open 
to  the  free  use  of  all,  on  payment  of  a  small  uniform 
tax  or  toll,  to  keep  them  in  repair.  But  now  the  most 
perfect,  and  by  far  the  most  important  roads  known  to 
mankind,  are  owned  and  managed  as  private  property 
by  a  comparatively  small  number  of  private  citizens." 
These  "Corporations  have  become  conscious  of  their 
strength,  and  have  entered  upon  the  work  of  controll- 

*  kkThe  Hallway  Problem,"  A.  B.  Stickney,  Ch.,  XVII.  Appendix. 
"  Railways  of  Europe  and  America,"  Mrs.  Todd,  Ch.,  IX. 


8        NATIONAL   OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS. 

ing  the  states.  Already  they  have  captured  some  of  the 
oldest  and  strongest  of  them;  and  these  discrowned 
sovereigns  now  follow  in  chains  the  triumphal  chariot 
of  their  conquerers.  And  this  does  not  imply  that 
merely  the  officers  and  representatives  of  states  have 
been  subjected  to  the  railroads,  but  that  the  corpora- 
tions have  grasped  the  sources  and  fountains  of  power, 
and  control  the  choice  of  both  officers  and  representa- 
tives." These  corporations  "own  our  greatest  high- 
ways and  levy  tribute  at  will  on  all  our  vast  industries." 
Thus  there  is  placed  in  the  hands  of  few  men  the  power 
of  taxing  the  people  as  they  please,  and  without  expla- 
nation or  representation.  Such  power  no  man  or  set 
of  men  should  be  permitted  to  exercise,  for,  "  taxation 
without  representation  is  tyranny."  A  small  addi- 
tional charge  upon  cereals  means  millions  of  dollars 
from  the  pockets  of  the  farmers.  We  cannot  afford  to 
leave  the  property  and  the  industrial  interests  of  this 
country  at  the  mercy  of  a  few  men  who  recognize  no 
responsibility  and  no  principle  other  than  that  of  per- 
sonal aggrandizement.  As  has  been  said,  "Whoever 
controls  the  highways  of  a  country  is  master  of  that 
country." 

III.  "  ACCUMULATION  OF  WEALTH. 
Many  of  the  large  fortunes  of  the  last  thirty  years 
have  resulted  from  the  private  ownership  of  our 
transportation  system.  The  Tribune  millionaire  list 
of  1892  shows  that  the  railways  are  one  of  the  four 
chief  causes  of  wealth  congestion.  The  practice  of 
watering  stock  and  wrecking  railways  in  order  that 
they  may  be  purchased  at  low  prices,  together  with 
the  general  state  of  corruption  connected  with  the 
private  ownership  of  railroads,  has  been  trulv  astound 
ing.  Mr,  Loucks,  in  treating  this  subjects,  has  col 


NA  T10NAL   O  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  WA  YS.         g 

lected  many  statistics,  among  which  is  the  following 
quoted  from  John  Davis,  M.C.,  which  I  give  as  an  illus- 
tration : — "The  government  of  the  United  States  paid 
the  company  that  built  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  in 
Kansas  12,800  acres  of  land,  and  $16,000  per  mile  for 
building  said  road  in  the  State  of  Kansas.  The  com- 
pany report  that  they  obtained  $3.00  per  acre  for  the 
lands.  The  total  subsidy,  then,  was  $54  400  per  mile 
for  building  ihe  road.  This  sum  should  have  paid  the 
cost  of  building  and  equipping  the  road  about  twice, 
and  the  road  should  have  been  turned  over  to  the 
government  as  a  public  highway,  free  from  incum- 
brance,  to  be  operated  in  the  interests  of  the  people 
at  mere  cost  of  running  expenses  and  repairs.  This, 
however,  is  not  the  condition  of  matters.  The  com 
pany  has  retained  the  road  as  its  own  property,  and  has 
loaded  it  with  a  burden  of  stocks  and  bonds  amounting 
to  $f 05, 454.78  per  mile,  on  which  the  people  must  pay 
dividends  and  interest.  These  official  figures  are 
found  in  the  annual  reports  of  the  board  of  railroad 
commissioners  of  Kansas,  Vol.  i.  and  7. 

"  They  show  that,  after  the  general  government  has 
paid  for  building  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  in  this 
state  about  twice  its  actual  cost,  the  people  must  still 
pay  interest  and  dividends  on  four  times  its  cost 
for  the  privelege  of  using  the  road/' 

Governor  Pattison's  figures  in  the  Minority  Report 
of  the  United  States  Railroad  Commission  in  1887 
show  the  most  dishonorable  dealings,  and  unparelled 
robbery  on  the  part  of  railroad  managers.  For  in- 
stance, the  Union  Pacific,  which  was  built  for  $38,824,- 
ooo  was  capitalized  at  $109,814,812 — a  fictitious  capital 
of  $70,990,812. 

The  Central  Pacific  and  Western  Pacific  added  por- 


ro       NA  TIONAL    O  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  WA  VS. 

tions,  were  built  for  $40,000,000  for  which  bonds  and 
stocks  were  issued  amounting  to  $124,211,680,  making 
a  fictitious  capital  of  $84,21 1,680.  His  report  is  filled 
with  similar  facts  and  figures,  evidencing  the  perfidy 
and  dishonor  connected  with  the  six  great  railroad 
companies  to  which  the  government  loaned  its  credit 
between  the  years  1865  and  1869.  "The  construction 
companies,  or  inside  combinations  that  built  five  of 
the  six  roads  have  destroyed  or  concealed  their  books; 
the  exception  being  the  Central  Branch,  and  the  com- 
mission has  been  embarrassed  in  its  work."  But  "  from 
the  minutes  and  accounts  of  the  railroad  companies 
and  from  fragmentary  information  gathered  from 
various  sources,  it  is  disclosed  that  the  officers  of  at 
least  three  of  these  companies  made  false  statements 
under  oath,  in  affidavits  now  on  file  in  the  Interior 
Department.  From  these  affidavits  the  following  has 
been  compiled: 

STOCK  TABLE. 


Company. 

Stock  actually 
paid  in. 

Stock  paid  in 
as  sworn  to. 

Name  of 
deponents. 

Date  of 

affidavids. 

Union  Pacific,       $400,650 
Kansas     "            $250,000 
Central     "            $760,000 
Central     "            $386,000 

$36,762,300 
$  5,072,500 
$54,283,190 
$     980,600 

Oliver  Ames. 
R.  E.  Carr. 
L.  Stanford. 
R.  M.  Pomeroy 

Sept.  27-1870. 
"      28-1872. 
"      18-1871. 
"      21-1869. 

TOTAL     $1,796,650          |       $97,098,590 


Henry  Clews,  the  noted  Wall  Street  magnate,  in 
The  Railway  Age,  says,  "  The  railways  of  the  country 
are  capitalized  at  probably  fully  50  per  cent,  in  excess 
of  their  actual  cost,  "  *  Here  is  a  prolific  cause  of  vast 
fortunes.  Such  frauds  upon  the  public  have  burden- 
ed the  people  with  excessive  taxation  in  railroad  rates, 
that  dividends  might  be  paid  on  watered  stock.  Un- 
der public  ownership  there  would  be  no  stock  to  water. 


*  On  Stock  and  Bond  Inflation  see  Larrabee's  "  Railway  Question,  "  ch.  vi. 


NA  TIONAL  O  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  WA  VS.        ji 

The  Post-Office  is  not  troubled  with  stock  manipula- 
tion. 

IV.     CORRUPTION  OF  POLITICS. 

14  Their  (the  railways)  great  wealth  and  power  has 
made  it  possible  for  them  to  influence  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent  every  department  of  the  National  and  State 
governments.  Their  influence  extends  from  the  town- 
ship assessor's  office  to  the  National  Capitol,  from  the 
publisher  of  the  small  cross  roads  paper  to  the  editorial 
staff  of  the  Metropolitan  daily.  It  is  felt  in  every 
caucus,  in  every  nominating  covention  and  at  every 

election The  large  means  at  the 

command  of  railroad  companies,  their  favors,  their 
vast  armies  of  employees  and  attorneys  and  their 
almost  equally  large  force  of  special  retainers 
are  freely  employed  to  carry  into  execution  their 
political  designs,  and  the  standard  of  ethics  recogn- 
ized by  railroad  managers  in  their  exploits  is  an  ex- 
ceedingly low  one."* 

In  a  report  of  the  U.  S.  Senate  Committee  composed 
of  Thurber  of  New  York,  Smidley  of  Iowa,  White  of 
Alabama,  Dorrnan  of  Virginia  and  Moore  of  Illinois, 
is  the  following: — "  It  is  in  evidence  that  it  has  been 
the  custom  of  the  managers  of  the  Erie  Railroad,  from 
year  to  year  in  the  past,  to  spend  large  sums  of  money 
to  control  elections  and  to  influenc  *  legislation. 

4<  In  the  year  1868  more  than  one  million  of  dolla/s 
was  discharged  from  the  treasury  of  this  company 
for  *  extra  and  legal  services.  " 

"  Mr.  Jay  Gould,  when  last  on  the  stand  and  ex- 
amined in  relation  to  various  vouchers  shown  him, 
admitted  the  payments  of  large  sums,  prior  to 
1872,  to  Barber,  Tweed,  and  others,  and  to  in 

*  "The  Rail  way  Question  "  p.  205. 


I*        NA  T10NAL  O  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  WA  YS. 

fluence  legislation  or  elections.  These  amounts 
were  charged  in  the  India  rubber  account.  Mr.  Gould, 
when  interrogated  as  to  the  instances  of  his  sending 
money  for  the  purpose  of  controlling  elections  or  in- 
fluencing legislation,  replied,  'that  it  would  be  as  im- 
possible tor  him  to  specify  the  numerous  instances  as 
it  would  to  recall  to  mind  the  numerous  freight  cars 
sent  over  the  Erie  from  day  to  day/  "  * 

The  elder  Vanderbilt  boasted  that  he  spent  $60,000 
in  a  short  time  at  AJbany  for  legislation  which  the 
Erie  railroad  desired,  and  that  fthe  got  it.  f  Hon. 
Thomas  V.  Cator,  who  has  made  a  careful  study  of 
the  subiect,  says  the  corruption  fund  spent  by  the 
railroads  of  the  United  States  amounts  to  $30,000,000 
annually.  J  No  one  doubts  that,  in  most  of  our 
states,  the  railroads  own  the  legislatures.  J.  D.  Law- 
son,  author  of  Leading  Cases  Simplified,  warns  the 
student  not  to  pay  much  attention  to  the  decisions  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania.  "The  Pennsyl 
vannia  Railroad  appears  to  run  that  tribunal  with  the 
same  success  that  it  does  its  own  trains.1'  Hon.  J  B. 
Beck  said  in  a  speech  in  the  U.  S.  Senate: — "  It  is  im- 
possible to  have  an  honest  legislature,  State  or  Federal, 
so  long  as  representatives  are  sent  who  owe  their 
election  to  or  are  personally  interested  in  grea* 
moneyed  corporations  or  monopolies.  No  matter 
whether  they  call  themselves  Democrats  or  Republi- 
cans, they  are  not  the  representatives  of  the  people> 
they  are  simply  the  agents  or  attorneys  of  those 
who  seek  their  own  aggrandizment  by  taxing  the 
masses." 

Mr.  Gowen,  President  of  the  Philadelphia  and  Read- 

*Page  556  of  Report. 

t  "  The  Public  Ownership  of  Monopolies,  "  Prof.  Parsons. 

%  "  Rescue  the  Republic,  "  Cator. 


NA  TJONAL  0  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  IV A  YS.        13 

ing  R.  R.,  said  to  the  Committee  on  Commerce  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  in  1880:— "  I  have  heard  the 
counsel  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Co.,  standing 
in  the  Sctpreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania,  threaten  that 
Court  with  the  displeasure  of  his  clients  if  it  decided 
against  them." 

Thomas  V.  Cator,  in  a  valuable  pamphlet  quotes 
from  a  circular  sent  out  by  the  New  York  Board  of 
Trade  and  Transportation  certain  extracts,  from  which 
I  take  the  following  :  "  '  The  corruption  of  our  elec- 
tions, legislatures  and  courts — the  undermining  of  the 
very  foundations  upon  which  our  forefathers  based  our 
free  institutions — the  spectacle  exhibited  to  the  young, 
of  chicanery  and  fraud  conferring  the  highest  prizes 
of  society  upon  its  most  unscrupulous  and  unworthy 
members— these  are  features  of  our  modern  life 
which  suggest  in  the  strongest  manner  a  future,  if  not 
a  present,  for  our  country,  *  where  wealth  accumulates 
and  men  decay/ 

"'If  any  are  disposed  to  question  the  truth  of  this 
picture  let  them  consider  a  few  undisputed  facts.  It 
is  not  disputed  : 

"  *  That  they  (the  railroads)  control  absolutely  the 
legislatures  of  a  majority  of  the  States  in  the  Union; 
make  and  unmake  Governors,  United  States  Senators 
and  Congressmen,  and  under  the  forms  of  popular 
government  are  practical  dictators  of  the  govern- 
ment policy  of  the  United  States.'  "  The  circular  fur 
ther  states  "'that  this  wealth  and  power  has  been 
acquired  largely  through  bribery  and  corruption,  .... 
that  because  Senator  Tharman  was  active  in  compell- 
ing the  Pacific  Railroads  to  fulfil  their  contracts  with 
the  government,  that  honest  man  and  able  states- 
man could  not  return  to  the  United  States  Senate.' " 


14       NATIONAL   OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS. 

And  also,  "  Hon.  David  Davis,  once  a  judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court  and  a  Senator  of  the  United  States, 
thus  indicates  the  serious  nature  of  the  problem  be- 
fore us  :  '  The  rapid  growth  of  corporate  power  and 
the  malign  influence  which  it  exerts  by  combination  on 
the  National  and  State  Legislatures,  is  a  well-grounded 
cause  for  alarm.  A  struggle  is  pending  in  the  near 
future  between  this  overgrown  power,  with  its  vast 
ramifications  all  over  the  Union,  and  a  hard  grip  on 
much  of  the  political  machinery,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  people  in  an  unorganized  condition  on  the  other, 
for  control  of  the  government.  It  will  be  watched  by 
every  patriot  with  intense  anxiety/ 

"We  have  indeed  reached  the  hour  foreseen  by  the 
prophetic  Abraham  Lincoln,  when  near  the  close  of 
the  war  he  said  :  '  It  has  been  indeed  a  trying  hour  for 
the  Republic  ;  but  I  see  in  the  near  future  a  crisis  ap- 
proaching that  unnerves  me  and  causes  me  to  tremble 
for  the  safety  of  our  country/ 

•'  *  As  a  result  of  the  war  corporations  have  been  en- 
throned, and  an  era  of  corruption  in  high  places  will 
follow,  and  the  money  power  of  the  country  will  en- 
deavor to  prolong  its  reign  by  working  upon  the  pre- 
judices of  the  people  until  all  wealth  is  aggregated  in 
a  few  hands,  and  the  Republic  is  destroyed  ' 

"  *  I  feel  at  this  moment  more  anxiety  for  the 
safety  of  my  country  than  ever  before,  even  in  the 
midst  of  the  war/  "  *  A  volume  might  be  filled  with 
similar  testimony. 

All  of  this  vicious,  corrupting  influence  in  politics, 
which  results  from  private  ownership  of  railways, 
would  be  entirely  removed  by  their  nationalization. 

*The  authenticity  of  this  quotations  has  been  questioned,  but  its  truth  is  evi- 
dent. 


NA  T10NAL   0  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  WA  YS.       15 

V.     DISCRIMINATIONS. 

One  of  the  greatest  evils  of  private  ownership  is  the 
discriminations  between  individuals,  localities,  corpo- 
rations and  communities™  This  evil  assumes  maEy 
forms.  In  the  Northwest  it  has  been  the  rule  to  re- 
fuse to  furnish  cars  to  track- buyers  and  farmers,  thus 
compelling  the  sale  of  wheat  to  elevator  companies. 

Frequently  railroad  companies  discriminate  between 
dealers,  building  up  one  and  ruining  many.  Before 
the  United  States  Senate  Committee  of  1885,  Mr. 
Wicker,  a  former  railroad  official,  testified  that  u  this 
discrimination,  by  reason  of  rebates,  is  a  part  of  the 
present  railroad  system."  This  is  plainly  to  be  seen 
in  the  coal  business.  The  favoritism  in  rates  and  re- 
bates, and  in  the  distribution  of  cars — a  failure  to  fur- 
nish cars  on  some  pretext,  to  certain  companies,  espe- 
cially if  they  be  rivals  of  those  in  which  the  railroad 
officials  are  interested — has  been  execrable.  By  this 
method  the  railroads  have  gained  possession  of  most 
of  the  mines,  so  that  there  are  today  but  few  coal- 
fields of  which  they  do  not  fix  the  output.  But  a  few 
years  ago,  the  Pittsburg  Coal  Company  and  many  other 
shippers  were  ruined  in  this  manner.  It  was  proven 
in  court  that  the  Pittsburg  Company,  during  one  pe- 
riod of  564  days,  could  get  only  2,371  empty  cars,  al- 
though the  company  had  sale  for,  and  capacity  to  pro- 
duce and  load,  15,000  cars.  During  this  period  the 
Rogers  Company,  in  which  some  of  the  railroad  offi- 
cials were  interested,  received  15,483  cars.* 

"  Within  the  last  thirty  years  95  per  cent,  of  the  an 
thracite  coal  of  America — practically  the  entire  sup- 
ply, it  was  reported  by  Congress  in  1893 — has  passed 

*Louck's  "  Government  Ownership,"  p.  33. 


r6       NA  TIONAL    O  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  WA  VS. 

from  the  ownership  of  private  citizens,  many  thou- 
sands in  number,  into  the  possession  of  the  railroads 

controlling  the  highways  of   the  coal  fields 

1  Railroad  syndicates,'  says  the  investigation  of  1888, 
'are  buying  all  the  best  bituminous  coal  lands  along 
their  lines  in  Missouri,  Kansas,  Colorado,  Arkansas, 
Tennessee,  Alabama,  and  other  Western  States  and 
Territories,  no  doubt  with  a  view  of  levying  tribute 
upon  the  people's  fuel  and  the  industrial  fires  of  the 
country.'  .  .  .  The  investigations  by  Congress 
in  1888  and  1893  both  state  that  the  railroads  of  the 
country  are  similarly  becoming  the  owners  of  our  iron 
and  timber  lands,  and  both  call  upon  the  people  to 
save  themselves.  A  new  law  of  industry  is  rising  into 
view.  Ownership  of  the  highways  ends  in  ownership 
of  everything  and  everybody  that  must  use  the  high- 
ways. .  .  'Tne  railroad  companies  engaged  in  mining 
and  transporting  coal  are  practically  in  a  combina- 
tion to  control  the  output  and  fix  the  price.'  .  .  . 
The  anthracite  collieries  of  Pennsylvania 
could  now  produce  50,000,000  tons  a  year.  The 
railroads  restrict  them  to  40,000,000  or  41,000,000  tons. 
...  In  the  ten  months  between  February  and  No- 
vember, 1892,  the  price  of  coal  in  the  East,  as  investi- 
gated by  Congress  in  1893,  was  advanced  by  the  coal 
railroads  as  much  as  $1.25  and  $1.35  a  ton."  *  The  ex- 
tortion yearly  by  the  railroad  monopoly  is  about  $40,- 
000,000.  This  is  on  anthracite  alone,  and  how  many 
thousands  of  dollars  on  bituminous,  it  is  impossible  to 
know.  This  monopoly  has  been  brought  about  by  rail- 
road discriminations.  They  have  had  it  within  their 
power, — by  refusing  to  supply  cars,  and  by  charging 
excessive  rates,  so  that  all  shippers  but  those  of  the 

*  "Wealth  VB,  Commonwealth,  "  Lloyd,  pp.  11, 12, 18. 


NA  TIONAL  O  WNERSHIP  OF  ft  AIL  WA  K5.        17 

company,  would  lose  money  on  every  ton  marketed, — 
to  compel  private  owners  to  sell  their  mines. 

But  not  only  in  grain  and  fuel  do  we  find  this  favorit- 
ism. It  is  also  found  in  the  meat  business.  "  The 
most  conspicious  illustration  is  the  present  position 
of  the  four  great  Chicago  firms  engaged  in  slaughter- 
ing and  marketing  beef.  Their  present  business  was 
built  up  by  rebates  paid  by  the  trunk  lines,  and  each 
began  as  a  sort  of  protege  of  one  of  the  railroads. 
Now,  with  this  immense  business,  by  combining  and 
throwing  the  bulk  ot  it  to  one  line,  thev  have  become 
dictators  of  rates  to  all  the  great  railway  corporations. 
These  firms  care  but  little  what  rates  they  pay,  pro- 
vided they  are  less  than  are  granted  to  other  shippers, 
so  that  they  may  continue  to  maintain  their  present 
practical  monopoly."  * 

Perhaps  the  most  glaring  discrimination  and  unjust 
favoritism,  was  that  in  favor  of  the  Standard  Oil  Com- 
pany. Prof.  Ely,  in  Problems  of  Today,  speaking  of 
this  matter,  says,  "  It  obtained  a  monopoly  through  an 
alliance  with  the  railways  ot  the  country,  and  this  gave 
it  special  freight  rates  which  no  one  else  could  secure. 
The  report  of  the  special  committee  appointed  to  in- 
vestigate the  railroads  of  New  York  in  1879  showed 
that  the  Standard  Oil  Company  had  received  in  rebates 
ten  million  of  dollars  in  eighteen  months.  It  was  im- 
possible for  competition  to  stand  up  against  such 
frightful  odds.1'  A  certain  railroad  was  found  to  be 
charging  the  Standard  Oil  Company  but  ten  cents 
freight  per  barrel,  while  it  charged  every  other 
shipper  35  cents  per  barrel,  25  cents  of  which  was 
turned  over  to  the  Standard  Oil  Co.  It  was  this 
alliance  with  the  railroads  which  enabled  this  com- 

*Stickney'i "  Railway  Problem,"  p.  38. 


i8       NATIONAL  OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS. 

pany  to  secure  a  monopoly.  The  rates  charged  Geo. 
Rice,  the  principal  competitor  of  the  Standard  Oil  Co., 
were  from  100  per  cent,  to  300  per  cent,  higher.  Can 
one  conceive  of  anything  in  the  commercial  realm 
more  outrageous  !  f 

In  these  several  instances  which  I  have  enumerated, 
we  see  that  businesses  have  become  monopolies  by 
their  alliance  with  the  railroads.  Railways  are  nat- 
ural monopolies,  and  nearly  all  artificial  monopolies 
have  been  created  by  some  sort  of  a  connection  with  a 
natural  monopoly.  Nationalize  the  railways — which 
would  mean  no  favor — and  artificial  monopolies  will 
largely  disappear. 

The  discrimination  between  localities  is  also  des- 
picable. This  is  done  by  refusing  to  stop  trains, — as 
on  the  Northern  Pacific  where  the  road  ran  through  a 
town  and  built  a  depot  three  miles  beyond,  in  order  to 
enhance  the  value  of  land  which  belonged  to  the  com- 
pany ;  by  building  up  a  new  town  and  destroying  the 
one  already  established,  and  also  by  making  war  on 
localities  through  discriminations  in  rates. 

Mr.  Stickney,  whose  valuable  book  abounds  in  in- 
stances of  discriminations,  says  in  his  introduction: — 
"  This  unrestricted  power  to  discriminate  in  the  matter 
of  rates,  lodged  in  the  hands  of  one  man,  the  mana- 
ger of  say  five  thousand  miles  of  railway  ;  the  power, 
through  malice,  ignorance,  or  stupidity,  to  decree 
which  out  of  say  a  thousand  cities  and  villages  located 
on  his  line  should  prosper,  and  which  should  not ; 
which  individuals  out  of  say  ten  thousand  merchants 
doing  business  in  those  cities  and  villages  should 
make  a  profit  or  a  loss, — and  if  it  suited  the  autocrat's 

tFor  full  details  see  kk  Wealth  vs.  Commonwealth,  "  also  Hudson's  "  Railways 
and  the  Republic. " 


NATIONAL  OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS.        iq 

whim,  the  same  man  might  be  in  favor  one  year  and 
under  the  ban  the  next, — such  enormous  power  over 
the  fortunes  of  so  many  should  never  be  lodged  in  the 
hands  of  any  human  being." 

Mr.  Stickney's  book  contains  many  diagrams  illus- 
trating the  tariff  schedules  of  railroads,  showing  rates, 
etc. .  The  diagra  n  on  page  68,  giving  the  legal  tariff 
in  operation  in  the  autumn  of  1888,  is  of  special  inter- 
est. If  one  wishes  to  understand  something  of  how 
the  chaos  of  rates  are,  as  he  says,  a  result  of  chance, 
— for  no  ingenuity  could  have  planned  such  a  snarl, — 
he  should  study  this  diagram.  For  instance,  it  shows 
that  the  rates  on  flour  and  wheat  are  the  same  for  80 
as  for  420  miles ;  coal  200  as  for  400  miles  ;  coarse 
grain  twice  as  much  as  flour,  and  on  some  classes  one 
article  is  higher  for  50  miles  than  the  other,  and  vice- 
versa,  etc.,  etc. .  Now,  in  addition  to  this  chaos,  let  one 
remember  that  at  every  town  of  importance  men  in 
all  branches  of  business,  are  securing  special  rates, 
and  one  may  realize  something  of  the  situation. 

Another  form  of  favoritism  is   the  Pass.      C.    W. 
Davis,  a  railway  auditor  of  experience,  and  also  an- 
executive  officer  having  power  to  issue  p,asses  says  : — 
"Fully  10  percent,  travel  free,  the  result  being  that 
the  great  mass  of  railway  users  are  yearly  mulcted 
some  $30,000,000  for  the  benefit  of  the  favored  min 
ority  ;  hence  it  is  evident  that  if  all  were  required  to 
pay  for  railway  services,  as  they  are  for  mail  services, 
the  rates  might  be  reduced  10  per  cent,  or  more,  and 
the  corporate  revenues  be  no  less,  and  the  operating 
expenses  no  more,    .     .     By  what  right  do  the  cor- 
porations tax  the  public  that  members  of  congress, 
legislators,  judges  and  other  court  officials  and  their 
families  may  ride  free  ?    Why  is  it  that  when  a  legis- 


20       NATIONAL  OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS. 

lature  is  in  session  that  passes  are  as  plentiful  as 
leaves  in  the  forest  in  autumn? 

"The  writer,  as  an  executive  officer  of  a  railway 
company  having  authority  to  issue  passes,  has, 
daring  a  session  of  the  legislature,  signed  vast 
numbers  of  blank  passes  at  the  request  of  the  legisla- 
tive agents  of  such  company,  and  under  instructions 
of  the  president  of  the  corporation  to  furnish  such 
lobby  agents  with  all  the  passes  they  should  ask  for." 

In  the  report  of  the  U.  S.  Senate  Commission,  Jan- 
uary 18, 1896,  we  find  these  words: — "  Unjustifiable  dis- 
criminations are  constantly  made  between  individuals 
.  .  and  between  localities  similarily  situated.  .  . 
The  effect  of  the  prevailing  policy  of  railroad  man- 
agement is  by  an  elaborate  system  of  secret  special 
rates,  rebates,  drawbacks  and  concessions  to  foster 
monoply  and  enrich  favored  shippers.  .  .  Such 
favoritism  and  secrecy  introduce  an  element  into  le- 
gitimate business  that  greatly  retards  the  develop- 
ment of  our  industries  and  commerce."* 

Prof.  Parsons,  after  having  cited  the  above  in  an 
article  in  To-Day,  says  : — "  Public  ownership  would  put 
a  stop  to  excessive  charges,  discriminating  rates,  un- 
just rebates,  favoritism,  monopoly  building,  million- 
aire making,  and  all  the  other  wealth  congesting  oc- 
cupations of  the  railroads,  and  confine  them  to  their 
proper  business  of  carrying"  persons  and  things  from 
one  place  to  another.  The  post  office  does  not  make 
millionaires,  no  Vanderbilts  or  Goulds  or  Rockefellers 
have  come  out  of  the  public  school  system,  or  the  fire 
department,  or  the  weather  bureau,  but  if  they  had 
bten  in  private  hands  what  mints  of  money  would 
have  been  made  through  special  contracts,  exorbitant 

*  See  Eeport  of  Senate  Committee,  pp.  180, 188. 


NATIONAL  OWNERSHIP   OF  RAILWAYS.        21 

charges,  etc. ."  Not  only  this,  but  government  owner- 
ship would  do  away  with  all  the  gambling  in  railway 
stocks  which  now  constitutes  fully  one-half  of  all  the 
gambling  in  this  country. 

VI.     THE  REMEDY. 

Public  ownership,  as  has  been  said,  is  the  only  rem- 
edy for  these  evils.  The  government  must  own  the 
railroads  or  the  railroads  will  own  the  government. 
Legislative  regulation  has  been  tried  time  and  again 
and  proved  futile.  Take,  for  example,  the  Inter-State 
Commerce  Law.  The  penalties  of  the  law  are  severe 
enough,  and  its  violation  evident,  but  where  are  the 
convictions  ?  The  only  one  secured  under  it,  was  that 
of  a  shipper  for  discriminating  against  a  railroad. 
And  yet,  Mr.  Stickney,  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Di- 
rectors of  the  St.  Paul  and  Kansas  City  Railroad,  after 
quoting  a  president  of  a  large  railroad  system,  to  the 
effect  that,  if  all  who  have  offended  against  the  law 
were  convicted,  there  would  not  be  jails  enough  in  the 
United  States  to  hold  them,  says,  "  Probably  it 
would  be  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  if  the  cases 
were  taken  up  and  prosecuted  to  conviction  in  their 
chronological  order,  the  man  who  was  cautious 
enough  to  abstain  from  law- breaking,  for  say,  two 
weeks,  could  go  on  from  that  time  defying  the  law 
with  impunity,  as  the  docket  would  after  that  be  so 
crowded  that  his  case  would  not  be  reached  during 
the  remainder  of  his  life." 

But  even  if  regulation  could  be  made  to  succeed,  it 
would  not  be  preferable  to  public  ownership.  Regu- 
lation would  not  remove  the  root  of  the  evil,  viz.,  the 
antagonism  between  public  and  private  interests.  Reg- 
ulation would  still  leave  the  stock  holders  to  appoint 
their  own  managers,  who  in  turn  would,  of  course, 


ss        NA  T10NAL  O  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  WA  FS. 

serve  their  electors.  It  is  this  antagonism  of  interests 
which  constitutes  the  evil  of  monopoly.  Regulation, 
instead  of  remedying,  would  only  result  in  greater 
evasion  of  the  law  and  corruption  of  its  officials.  Reg- 
ulation  would  still  leave  the  big  salaries,  costs  of  liti- 
gation, expense  of  commissions,  enormous  profits,  high 
rates,  low  wages,  poor  service,  stock  gambling,  evasion 
of  taxes,  watering  of  stock,  disregard  of  safety,  antag- 
onisms of  interests,  long  hours  of  labor,  increased  in- 
centive to  strikes,  etc.,  etc. . 

No  !  regulation  is  not  the  remedy.  Public  and  pri- 
vate interests  must  be  united,  and  complete  harmony 
restored.  Public  ownership  is  the  only  solution  of 
the  problem. 

VII.     METHOD  OF  PURCHASE. 

Several  ways  of  making  the  railroads  public  prop- 
erty have  been  proposed. 

First — Bonds  might  be  issued,  and  the  roads  pur- 
chased and  operated  for  the  benefit  of  the  people,  the 
receipts  which  are  now  used  to  pay  dividends  and  in- 
terest on  private  capital  being  devoted  to  paying  the 
interest  and  principal  of  the  bonds.  This  is  the  way 
Wheeling,  W.Va.,  purchased  its  gas  works,  and  the 
city  now  owns  her  plant  free  of  debt. 

Second — Capitalists  might  form  a  syndicate  to  pay 
for  stock  and  bonds.  The  roads,  taken  by  "  eminent 
domain,"  could  then  be  leased  to  this  syndicate  under 
contract  of  good  service  and  their  return  free  of  debt, 
within  a  given  period.  Springfield,  111.,  has  adopted 
this  plan  to  obtain  its  electric  light  plant. 

Third — Postal  savings-banks  could  be  established, 
and  "  receive  deposits  and  loan  on  security  at  i  or  2 
per  cent. — then  it  could  buy  the  roads  with  the  funds 
deposited  or  borrow  the  money  at  its  banks  at  i  per 


NATIONAL  OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS.       23 

cent,  and  the  transaction  would  be  in  strict  accord- 
ance with  the  principles  of  the  bankers  and  finan- 
ciers."* This  last  plan  is  recommended  by  Prof. 
Parsons  of  Boston  University. 

Many  other  methods  have  been  proposed,  but  these, 
all  things  considered,  seem  to  me  the  most  fair.  I  am 
inclined  to  favor  the  first  plan,  inasmuch  as  govern- 
ment savings  banks  can  not  be  established  without 
much  delay. 

VIII.     THE  COST. 

The  question  naturally  arises  here,  What  would  be 
the  cost  of  such  an  undertaking  ? 

We  have  seen  that  the  roads  are^capitalized  at  more 
than  twice  their  actual  cost.  Surely,  the  government 
ought  not  to  pay  for  property  twice  as  much  as  it  is 
worth.  When  we  go  to  purchase  a  piece  of  land  we  do 
not  inquire  what  it  cost,  or  how  much  the  owner  paid 
for  it  twenty  years  ago,  but,  What  is  it  worth  to-day  ? 

If  the  State  needs  a  man's  property,  it  inquires  as  to 
its  market  value,  as  to  what  property  equally  as  good 
can  be  bought  for  to-day,  and  pays  him  that.  If  the 
property  is  worth  but  $1,000,  the  State  does  not  pay 
$2,000,  even  though  it  may  have  been  worth  that  at 
some  former  period.  The  law  of  "  eminent  domain  " 
only  requires  the  State  to  pay  the  actual  cash  value  at 
the  time  of  purchase. 

What  then  is  the  actual  cash  value  of  the  railroad 
system?  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  whole  system 
could  be  replaced  to-day  for  $20,000  per  mile.  In  1893 
there  were  175  508  miles  f  of  railroad  in  this  country, 
(including  elevated  roads)  which,  at  $20,000  per  mile, 

*  "To-day,"  February,  1896.    "Arena,"  April,  1895. 

t  For  statistics,  see  Poor's  "Manual  of  Railroads,"  1894-95. 


a+       NA  TIONAL  O  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  WA  VS. 

would  make  a  total  cost  of  $3,510,160,000,  and  even  this 
is  in  excess  of  the  actual  cash  capital  invested  by  the 
railway  companies.  The  amount  of  bonds  and  inter- 
est granted  by  the  National  Government  to  the  Pacific 
railroads  is  given  by  Mrs.  Todd,  in  her  valuable  work, 
The  Railroads  of  Europe  and  America,  as  $147,929,722.29. 
The  amount  oc  land  donated  by  Congress,  according 
to  the  National  Economist,  was  191,929,722  acres,  which, 
at  $5.00  per  acre,  would  amount  to  $959,648,610.  Add 
to  this  cash,  bonds  and  stock  bonuses  from  individ- 
uals, cities,  counties,  etc.,  at  least  an  equal  amount, 
and  it  is  evident  that  the  actual  cash  capital  invested 
by  these  companies  is  not  in  excess  of  the  $3,510,160,- 
ooo.  The  total  1  abilities  of  the  railroads  in  1893,  were 
$11,443,888,892.  From  this  deduct  $383,201,872  for  cur- 
rent accounts,  and  we  have  $11,060,687,020  as  the  total 
capital  investment,  of  which  the  capitalization,  as  we 
have  seen,  is  considerably  more  than  half  water. 

But  suppose  that  we  be  generous  and  allow  $25,000  f 
per  mile,  which,  according  to  Gov.  Larrabee,  is  a 
liberal  estimate  of  the  average  cost  of  American  roads 
to  the  stock  and  bondholders,  and  we  have  a  total  of 
$4,387,700,000.  Now  let  us  go  still  further,  and  be 
more  than  generous.  Let  the  $25,000  stand  for  mere 
cost,  per  mile,  of  track  and  allow  for  equipment  $360, 
120,000  for  the  36,012  locomotives  at  $10,000  each; 
$100,000,000  for  th^  27,169  passenger  cars  and  the  7,805 
baggage  and  mail  cars  ;  $500,000,000  for  the  1,161,282 
freight  cars,  and  we  should  have  a  total  of  $5,347,820,- 
ooo.  The  interest  of  this  at  3  per  cent,  would  be  $160,- 
434,600.  Of  course,  we  shall  be  told  that  the  Nation 
can  never  assume  such  a  responsibility.  Well,  let  us  see. 

t  Thousands  of  miles    have   been   built   in  recent  years  from   $10,000  to 
$15,000  per  mile. 


NA  T2ONAL   O  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  IV A  VS.        2-; 

We  paid  the  railroads  in  1893,  $1,333,906  772  The 
profits  of  the  railroad  companies  that  year  were  $475,- 
880,041.  We  actually  paid  then  the  160  millions  and 
315  millions  besides.  It  is,  therefore,  perfect  nonsense 
to  say  we  cannot  pay  it,  when  we  are  paying  it,  and 
twice  as  much  more,  besides. 

We  could  pay  the  $160,000,000,  or  even  $200,000,000, 
and  then  make  a  profit  of  over  $200,000,000  on  the 
transaction.  The  dividends  and  surplus  paid  by  the 
railroads  in  1893,  *  according  to  their  figures,  amounted 
to  $126,142,882. 

IX.     ECONOMY  OF  PUBLIC  OWNERSHIP. 

The  savings  to  the  people  under  public  ownership 
would  be  enormous.  Mr.  C.  W.  Davis  has  estimated 
the  economies  of  public  ownership  at  $360,000,000,  and 
in  his  account  many  items  are  omitted.  Thomas  V. 
Cator  estimates  that  we  could  borrow  the  money,  pay 
2  per  cent,  interest  on  the  loan,  and  at  once  save  520 
millions  out  of  the  one  billion  dollars  yearly  paid  the 
railroads. 

Prof.  Parsons  computes  the  "  Savings  by  dispensing 
with  599  out  of  600  railway  presidents  with  their  costly 
staffs,  a  similar  number  of  managers  and  staffs,  68 
traffic  associations,  the  whole  army  of  commercial 
agents  and  lawyers,  competing  depots  and  uptown 
offices  ;  savings  by  uniformity  of  rails,  cars,  etc  ,  and 
the  multitudinous  adjustments,  co  operations  and 
simplifications,  that  will  result  from  consolidations, 
will  figure,  according  to  careful  data,  not  less  than 
$100,000,000  a  year.  The  saving  to  the  public  from 
purer  administration, — by  abrogation  of  the  pass  evil, 
commissions,  rebates  and  corruption  funds,  and  by 

*  1893  being  an  average  year,  it  has  been  chosen  as  the  basis  of  these  calcula- 
tion!. 


26       NA  TIONAL    O  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  WA  YS. 


greater  care  in  preventing  accidents, — $90,000,000.  The 
immediate  savings  in  interest  will  be  about  200  mill- 
ions, so  that  the  total  savings  will  be  390  millions  a 
year  at  once,  and  when  the  roads  have  paid  for  them- 
selves, there  will  be  a  saving  to  railway  users  of  the 
whole  400  millions  that  goes  to  railroad  capital  and 
the  entire  savings  will  probably  then  exceed  600 
millions."  * 

As  some  may  desire  to  have  these  items  more  spe- 
cialized, I  have  compiled  the  following  table  from 
various  authorities,  especially  C.  Wood  Davis,  who  is 
a  railroad  man  eminently  qualified  to  speak  upon  the 
subject: 

ESTIMATES  BY  C.  W.  DAVIS  f 

Savings  by — 

Dispensing  with  599  presidents,: with  their  staffs         -  $25  000,000 

Dispensing  with  high  priced  managers  and  their  staffs  4,000,000 

Abolishing  attorneys  and  legal  expenses      -       -  12  000,000 
Abolishing  solicitors    and  officers,  maintained  off  the 

regular  lines,  for  securing  competitive  traffic    -        -  15,000,000 

Consolidation  of  depots,  officers  and  staffs  20  000,000 

The  exclusive  use  of  shortest  routes      -  25,000,000 

Abolishing  5-7  of  the  advertising  account  5  000,000 

Abrogation  of  the  pass  evil 30,000,000 

Disbanding  traffic  associations  whose  only  duty  is  to 

adjust  matters  between  competing  lines    -  4  coo.ooo 

Abrogation  of  the  commission  system  -        ...  20  000,000 

ESTIMATES  BY  PROF.  PARSONS  \ 

Uniformity  of  rail,  cars,  machinery,  etc.,  cheapening 
their  manufacture  by  avoiding  freight  blockades, 
return  of  empties  belonging  to  other  roads,  clerkage 
to  kef  p  account  of  foreign  cars  and  adjust  divisions 
of  earnings;  by  simple  tariffs,  saving  time  of  public 
and  clerks;  by  all  the  numerous  little  economies  of  a 

*  "  The  Public  Ownership  of  Monopolies,  "  p.  12. 

t  For  basis  of  estimates  see  Louck's  "  r-™ rernr~~" *  Ownership." 

j  April tk  Arena,  "  1895. 


NATIONAL   OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS.       27 

vast  business  under  a  single  management  with  no 
competitive  warfare  to  waste  its  energies         -       -    $15,000,000 
Avoiding  strikes  and  developing  a  better  spirit  among 
employees 10,000  ooo 

POOR'S  MANUAL — 1894. 

Having  no  dividends,  interest,  rent,  etc.,  to  pay  -        -    445,078,840 
Putting  the  surplus  into  the  people's  treasury      -        -      30,801.201 

ESTIMATES  BY  T.  V.  CATOR. 

Abolishing  corruption  fund 30,000,000 

Abrogating  unjust  rebates,  etc. 50,000  oco 

Total  saving  by  Public  Ownership      -       -       -  $740,880  041 

In  1893  we  paid  the  railroads  $1,333,906,772,  but  the 
same  service  under  public  ownership,  if  free  of  debt, 
would  have  cost  but  about  $590,000,000.  This  would 
enable  a  reduction  of  one  half  in  the  rate  and  still 
leave  a  profit.  Even  a  greater  reduction  might  be 
made,  for  the  lowering  of  rates  would  be  followed  by 
increase  of  patronage  which  would  greatly  increase 
revenue.  It  costs  but  little  more  to  run  full  trains 
than  trains  half  full.  If  a  road  carries  one  million 
passengers  a  year,  it  can  carry  another  million  for  one 
half  what  it  costs  to  carry  the  first.  If  it  makes  50  per 
cent,  profit  on  the  first  million  it  will  make  75  per 
cent,  on  the  second  ;  or,  if  the  first  million  are  carried 
at  cost,  the  second  will  yield  100  per  cent,  profit .*  Mr. 
Acworth  says  that,  up  to  the  full  capacity  of  the  rail- 
road equipment,  the  cost  of  each  additional  passenger 
is  not  over  one  cent  for  410  miles,  f  Herein  may  be 
seen  the  reason  why,  under  public  ownership,  fares 
may  be  reduced  not  only  to  one  tenth,  but  even  to  one 
twentieth  of  their  present  rate, 

*  April  "  Arena,"  1895. 
tDecember  "  Arena,  "  1895. 


**       NATIONAL  OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  rates  are  now  charged 
to  cover  total  expenses.  There  is  a  wide  difference 
between  total  expenses  and  operating  expenses, — the 
former  includes  interest,  dividends  and  profits.  Again, 
we  must  distinguish  between  actual  operating  ex- 
penses, and  expenses  in  which  are  included  corruption 
funds,  rebates,  etc. 

In  1890,*  the  railroads  place  cost  of  a  ton  mile  at 
.6  of  a  cent,  and  a  passenger  mile  at  2  cents.  In  round 
numbers  there  were  11,848  millions  passenger  miles 
and  76,207  millions  ton  miles.  The  total  operating  ex- 
pense that  year  was,  therefore,  693  millions  of  dollars. 
The  railway  returns  show  that  60  millions  dollars  of 
this  amount  were  derived  from  mail,  express,  eleva- 
tors, stockyards,  car-mileage,  etc. — their  own  proper 
incomes, — so  that  the  actual  operating  expense  charge- 
able to  passenger  and  freight  service  was  only  633 
millions.  Even  this  includes  charges  to  cover  rebates, 
commissions,  corruption  money,  etc.,  amounting  as 
estimated  to  $110,000,000.  Deduct  the  60  millions  and 
the  no  millions,  from  the  693  millions  of  dollars,  and 
we  have  left  523  millions  as  the  actual  cost  of  our 
present  freight  and  passenger  service.  This  would 
make  the  real  cost  ot  moving  one  passenger  one  mile, 
1.2  cents,  and  a  ton  of  freight,  ,5  of  a  cent. 

Under  public  ownership,  operating  expenses  would 
be  reduced  at  least  one  third,  or  to  462  millions  of  dol- 
lars. Now,  from  this  substract  the  60  millions  charge- 
able to  express,  mail,  etc.,  and  we  have  402  millions. 
This  alone,  remember,  would  permit  rates  one-third 
lower  than  at  present.  Now,  if  the  burden  were 

*  See  Inter-State  Commerce  Commission  Report  of  1890,  p.  51.  The  report  con- 
tains summary  of  156,  404.06  miles  of  railway.  The  total  number  of  miles  operated 
that  year  was  163,420.  I  use  the  statistics  ef  1890  here  so  as  to  avail  myself  of  the 
valuable  table  given  by  Prof.  Parsons  in  the  April  "  Arena  "  of  1895,  which  are 
based  upon  that  year's  report. 


NATIONAL  OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS.        *9 

thrown  on  freight  so  as  to  relieve  passenger  travel — 
as  many  advocate — a  uniform  tariff  of  one  half  cent, 
per  ton  mile  and  passenger  mile,  might  be  established. 
This,  in  a  year  like  1890,  would  yield  440  millions  of 
dollars,  an  excess  of  38  millions  over  operating  ex- 
penses, with  a  freight  reduction  of  over  three-tenths 
and  a  passenger  reduction  of  over  three  fourths  of  the 
present  charges. 

The  increase  of  traffic  which  would  result  from  low 
rates  would,  in  a  few  years,  enable  the  establishment 
of  a  tariff  of  .4  ot  a  cent  per  ton  mile  and  .1  of  a  cent 
per  passenger  mile.  If  amount  of  freight  only  doubled 
and  passenger  travel  increased,  but  four  and  one  half 
times,  this  would  give  an  income  of  650  millions, 
which,  with  revenues  from  express,  etc ,  would  cover 
all  expenses.  Until  the  system  is  free  from  debt  it 
would  be  wise  to  establish  rates  a  trifle  higher  so  that 
the  income  would  pay  cost  of  purchase. 

That  these  estimates  of  increase  are  not  too  high 
may  be  seen  by  statistics  from  Austro- Hungary,  where 
a  reduction  in  fares  of  40  per  cent.,  in  three  years  re- 
sulted in  an  increased  traffic  of  46  4  per  cent.  Although 
wages  have  been  doubled  in  the  meantime,  and  fares 
reduced,  still  the  system  yields  more  than  100  per 
cent,  net,  the  operating  expenses  being  less  than  one- 
half  the  income.* 

Many  roads  in  this  country  sell  season  tickets  at 
but  little  over  one-half  cent  a  mile,  which  they  would 
not  do,  if  the  custom  resulted  in  a  loss.  Other  roads 
sell  season  tickets  at  seven  tenths  of  a  cent  a  mile. 

Of  course,  too,  many  roads  have  been  built  which 
were  not  needed.  This  is  evident  from  the  fact  that 
one  third  of  the  railroads  are  in  the  hands  of  receivers. 

*  April  "Arena,"  p.  228,  note  3. 


jo        NATIONAL  OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS. 

If  these  superfluous  roads  are  excluded  from  our  esti- 
mates, we  will  find  that  the  average  cost  of  moving 
one  passenger  one  mile,  with  trains  loaded  as  at  pres- 
ent— forty-one  passengers  per  train, — is  about  one  cent : 
with  the  advantages  of  public  ownership,  it  would 
fall  below  one-half  cent.  In  Dorsey's  English  and 
American  Railways,  page  82,  it  is  stated  that  the  cost  per 
passenger  mile  on  such  roads  as  the  Pennsylvania  is 
now  about  one-half  cent.  Where  trains  are  well  filled 
the  expense  is  very  much  reduced.  The  cost  of  mov- 
ing a  passenger  train  one  mile,  according  to  railway 
reports,  is  eighty  cents.  In  a  train  carrying  400  pas 
sengers  then,  the  cost  per  passenger  mile  would  be  but 
one  fifth  of  a  cent. 

This  eighty  cents  per  train  mile  includes  all  the  ex- 
pense of  railway  traffic,  each  train  mile  bearing  its 
proportion  of  waste,  corruption  money,  rebates,  etc. 

Now,  according  to  these  figures,  what  is  the  real  cost 
of  transporting  passengers  from  New  York  to  Chicago, 
on  well  filled  trains  ?  The  distance  is  913  miles,which, 
multiplied  by  cost  per  passenger  mile,  gives  a  cost  of 
about  $i  82,  or  for  round  trip,  $3.64. 

Again,  the  cost  of  moving  a  passenger  train  being 
eighty  cents  per  mile,  if  we  multiply  this  by  the  num- 
ber of  miles,  913,  we  get  the  cost  of  running  a  train 
from  New  York  to  Chicago,  which  is  $730.40.  Now, 
by  dividing  this  amount  by  the  number  of  passengers 
carried  (400),  we  get  the  cost  per  passenger,  $1.82. 
This,  remember,  is  based  upon  the  railroad  companies 
own  figures,  and  includes  the  pro  rata  share  of  labor, 
taxes,  rebates,  wear  and  tear,  lobby  fees,  etc.  It  covers 
all  expenses,  and  we  may  be  sure,  that  their  own  pub- 
lished estimates  of  the  cost  of  moving  trains  are  not 
too  low. 


NA  riONAL  0  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  WA  VS.       31 

If  the  government  owned  the  railroads  we  might  go 
to  Chicago  and  back  for  $2.00  or  less.  Do  you  say  this 
is  Utopian  ?  Let  us  see.  We  have  found  that  public 
ownership  would  reduce  operating  expenses  one-third. 
This  would  bring  cost  per  train  mile  down  to  about 
fifty- four  cents,  (.53  1-3)  and  the  cost  per  passenger 
mile  to  a  little  over  one  tenth  of  a  cent  ($.00135). 

Now,  if  we  multiply  the  distance,  913  miles,  by  cost 
per  train  mile  (64  cents),  we  shall  have  $493.02  as  the 
cost  of  running  a  train  from  New  York  to  Chicago. 
Divide  this  by  the  number  of  passengers  (400) 
and  we  find  the  cost  per  passenger  to  be  $1.23.  Or, 
multiply  the  cost  per  passenger  ($.00135)  by  the  num- 
ber of  miles  (913),  and  we  obtain  the  same  result.  This 
would  make  the  round  trip  $2.46. 

But  this  is  not  all.  These  estimates  are  based  simply 
upon  the  saving  in  operating  expenses.  If  we  add  to 
this  the  many  other  economies  which  have  been 
pointed  out,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  regular 
fare  would  be  less  than  $2.00  for  the  round  trip,  while 
excursion  rates  need  not  exceed  $1.00. 

Not  only  this,  but  the  economies  of  public  owner 
ship  would  enable  us  to  go  by  excursion  from  New 
York  to  San  Francisco  and  return  for  a  five  dollar  bill ! 
Even  the  reduction  of  one  third  in  operating  expenses 
would  bring  the  regular  fare  down  to  about  $9.00  for 
the  round  trip,  with  trains  fully  loaded.  Our  estimate 
of  one- third  reduction  (54  cents  per  train  mile),  is  by 
no  means  excessive.  English  railway  statistics  show 
that  the  average  expense  per  train  mile  is  only  forty- 
four  cents,  and  on  German  Railways,  under  public  own- 
ership, the  cost  per  car  mile  is  already  reduced  below 
five  cents ;  and  this  latter,  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  Germany  employs  on  the  railways  about  double 


32        NATIONAL  OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS. 

the  number  of  men  per  mile,  that  are  employed  in  this 
country.  Although  larger  wages  are  paid  here,  the 
difference  is  more  than  made  up  by  the  fewer  men 
employed. 

The  German  state  road  at  Berlin  sells  yearly  tickets, 
good  for  five  miles' ride  in  arid  out  of  the  city,  on  any 
train,  for  $4.50.  This  means  3,650  miles  for  $4,50,  if  the 
holder  lives  five  miles  out  of  the  city  and  goes  in  and  out 
once  a  day.  If  he  goes  twice  a  day  it  means  7,300 
miles  for  $4.50.  The  passenger  may  travel  more  miles 
than  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco  and  return,  and 
all  for  $4.50.  Can  we  not  do  that  which  Germany  is 
doing  ?  The  government  pays  the  railroads  about  $275 
for  transporting  a  loaded  postal  car  from  Boston  to 
San  Francisco.  A  passenger  car  carrying  50  passen- 
gers a*  $10.00  each,  would  amount  to  $500,  or  a  clear 
profit  under  our  present  management  of  $225.  Does 
any  one  doubt  that,  under  public  ownership  the  excur- 
sion rate  could  be  placed  at  $5*00  ? 

In  the  December  Arena  of  1895,  Mr.  J.  L.  Cowles 
gives  data  of  three  excursions,  which  were  run  over 
the  Cleveland,  Canton  and  Southern  Railroad,  from 
Zanesville,  Ohio,  to  Cleveland  and  return  (286  miles), 
for  75  cents  round  trip — less  than  three-tenths  of  a 
cent  a  mile.  Each  train  carries  700  passengers,  mak- 
ing the  receipts  $525.  per  train.  The  cost  of  these  ex- 
cursion trains  was  but  little  greater  than  that  of  rr  g 
ular  trains.  Rut  allowing  $1.00  per  train  mile,  inste  ad 
of  the  80  cents,  the  cost  to  ihe  railroads  was  only  one- 
seventh  ot  a  cent  per  passenger  mile,  and  the  profit 
was  nearly  50  per  cent. 

Note.— These  estimates  are  based  upon  train  of  400  passengers.  If  trains  carried 
from  600  to  800  the  rate  per  passenger  mile  would  be  greatly  reduced.  Even  at  the 
German  rate  of  five  cents  per  car  mile,  sixty  occupying  a  car,  tlie  cost  per  pas- 
senger mile  would  be  reduced  to  .00083  1-3.  This  would  make  the  regular  fare  from 
New  York  to  Chicago  seventy -six  cents.  Who  doubts,  then,  that  excursions  could 
be  run  for  fifty  cents  ? 


NATIONAL   OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS.       33 

All  this  but  evidences  that  which  Sir  William  Gait 
proved  before  the  Royal  Commission  of  England  some 
years  ago,  that  full  trains  can  be  run  for  one-tenth  of 
a  cent  per  passenger  mile. 

Under  public  ownership  it  would  not  be  too  much  to 
expect  that  the  regular  fares  would  be  reduced  to  one- 
tenth  of  a  cent  per  passenger  mile,  and  probably  would 
fall  below  that,  while  for  excursions,  the  rates,  as  we 
have  predicted,  need  not  exceed  one-twentieth  of  a 
cent  per  passenger  mile. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  speak  of  the  importance 
of  cheap  transportation.  We  all  recognize  travel  as 
a  mighty  educator.  Nothing  tends,  more  quickly,  to 
overcome  prejudice  and  banish  ignorance. 

Economy  and  civilization  call  for  public  ownership. 
X.  EXPERIENCE. 

"Experience  is  the  best  teacher."  We  are  always 
prone  to  look  for  precedents,  and  it  might  be  well  for 
us  to  inquire,  What  has  been  the  result  of  public  own- 
ership in  the  fifty- four  countries  now  owning  their 
railway  systems,  wholly  or  in  part  ? 

In  the  first  place,  we  notice  in  such  countries  an  ab- 
sence of  the  f  rauds,'corruption,  and  monopolies,  which 
grow  out  of  our  system.  Official  reports  and  the  tes- 
timony of  travelers  show  that  the  service  is  cheaper, 
safer,  and  more  progressive  than  the  service  in  this 
country. 

Another  important  feature  of  public  ownership  is 
the  revenue. 

In  Germany  the  net  profits  from  government  owner- 
ship in  1890  were  $121,412,166  60.  The  average  passen- 
ger fare  is  .01 17  cents  per  mile,  and  the  average  freight 
rate  is  .0147  cents  per  ton  mile.  The  net  profits  dur- 
ing the  last  ten  years  have  increased  41  per  cent., 


34       NA  TIONAL   O  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  WA  VS. 

and  wages  are  121  per  cent,  higher  than  they  were  un 
der  private  ownership.    On  third  class  fare  one  may 
ride  four  miles  for  one  cent,  and  ten  miles  on  the  Ber- 
lin road  for  the  same  amount. 

The  reports  of  1890  show  that  a  surplus  of  38.40  per 
cent,  was  collected  in  excess  of  what  was  needed  to 
maintain  the  roads.  Should  it  be  deemed  desirable  to 
run  the  roads  at  cost,  rates  might  be  reduced  38.40 
per  cent.  But  as  this  reduction  in  rates  would  result 
in  increased  traffic,  a  surplus  would  still  result  even 
at  this  low  figure.* 

The"  experience  of  Belgium  has  been  similar  to  that 
of  Germany.  Fares  and  freight  rates  have  been  re- 
duced one-  half  and  wages  of  employees  doubled  under 
governmental  control.  The  net  profits  for  1891  were 


In  New  Zealand  the  government  owns  1,886  miles  of 
railroad,  which  paid  in  1893  a  net  profit  of  $2,179,473. 
The  profits  which  have  accrued  to  the  colony  in  cheap- 
ening transit  are  inestimable. 

In  New  South  Wales  the  government  owns  2,351 
miles  of  railroad,  which  paid  in  1893  a  profit  of  $9,565, 
868  40.     The  saving  in  public  lands  alone  would  more 
than  pay  the  entire  cost  of  the  system. 

In  Victoria,  with  its  population  in  1891  of  1,140,405, 
there  were  2,903  miles  of  railway  owned  by  the  gov- 
ernment, which  in  1892  netted  $4,641,367  55.  This  sum 
in  a  large  measure  sufficed  to  pay  all  federal  taxes. 
In  1890  the  railroads  carried  71,058,940  passengers. 
"Compared  with  population  scarcely  any  country  in 
the  world  carried  so  many  passengers  by  rail  as  Vic- 
toria." The  other  colonies  in  Australia  also  bear  im- 
portant evidence  for  government  ownership,  but  space 

*Todd's  "  Railway's  of  Europe  and  America,"  p  41. 


NA  TIONAL   O  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  WA  1  S.       35 

does  not  permit  more  specific  mentioning.  In  Aust^a- 
lia  one  may  ride  1,000  miles,  first  class,  for  $6,50,  and 
workingmen  may  ride  three  miles  for  one  cent.  Wages 
are  from  25  to  30  per  cent  higher  than  in  this  coun- 
try, and  the  working  day  is  only  eight  hours. 

In  Natal,  with  a  population  in  1890  of  only  543  913, 
the  government  owned  399  miles  of  railroad  which 
netted  in  1892  $810,357.40.  The  State  was  then  build- 
ing 100  miles  more. 

In  Russia,  in  1891,  the  government  owned  6,824  miles 
of  railway,  and  was  building  893  miles  additional,  be- 
sides the  New  Siberian  line,  which  will  be  4,950  miles 
Ion2f.  The  net  return  to  the  government  from  the 
public  railroads,  in  1891,  were  $24,722,406.  All  private 
roads  revert  to  the  government  after  a  period  ot  from 
37  to  85  years.  Workingmen  in  Russia  may  ride  2,000 
miles  for  $6.00. 

In  France  the  larger  number  of  railroads  are  owned 
by  private  companies,  but  their  charters  stipulate  that 
they  shall  revert  to  the  government  at  the  end  of  99 
years.  The  charters  also  require  the  railways  to  carry 
all  mail  free,  also  officers,  employees  of  the  govern- 
ment and  soldiers,  at  very  low  rates.  They  also  pay 
the  state  10  per  cent,  of  the  gross  receipts  of  passenger 
tariff  and  on  freight  carried  on  passenger  trains.  The 
government  itself  owns  3,643  miles. 

In  Austro-Hungary  the  railroad  reports  for  1888 
show  a  total  net  income  of  $50,457,822  The  average 
passenger  fare  is  .01306  cents,  and  the  average  freight 
rate  per  ton  mile  is  .01557  cents,  f 

These  statistics  are  sufficient  to  show  the  financial 
advantage  of  public  ownership.  Experience,  then, 

tForfull  statistics  see  Vrooman's  ''Government  Ownership"  and  " Todd's 
Railways." 


NATIONAL  OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS. 


favors  nationalization.  Prof.  Ely  informs  us  that, 
without  exception,  every  man  he  met  in  Germany  con- 
sidered the  test  of  experience  as  demonstration  of  the 
superiority  of  government  ownership.  Even  those 
who  were  once  bitterly  opposed  to  the  undertaking, 
are  now  convinced  of  their  error,  and  no  one  wishes 
to  return  to  private  ownership. 

XI.     PUBLIC  SAFETY  DEMANDS  GOVERNMENT  OWN- 
ERSHIP. 

In  every  way  the  service  under  public  ownership  is 
superior  to  that  under  private  control.  Prof.  Ely,  in 
the  Congngationalist  of  July  21,  1992,  in  speaking  of  the 
German  systen,  mentions  the  extreme  solicitude  on  the 
part  of  railway  managers  for  the  safety  of  passengers. 
This  is  evident  from  the  following  table  which  I  have 
prepared  from  the  railroad  reports  of  1890: 


Passengers  Carried. 

Killed. 

Proportion. 

Injured. 

Proportion. 

United  States  .  .  .-492,430,865 
Germany  „  .  .  .426,056,250 
Austro-Hurgary.  .  68,638,938 

286 
46 
4 

1  in  every 
1,721,786 
1  in  every 
9,262,092 
1  in  every 
17,109,734 

2,425 
236 
53 

1  in  every 
203,064 
1  in  every 
1,805,323 
1  in  every 
1,291,300 

Men  Employed. 

Killed. 

Proportion. 

Injured. 

Proportion. 

United  States  749,301 

2,451 

1  in  every  306 

22,396 

1  in  every     33 

Germany  340,553 

454 

1  in  every  750 

2,011 

1  in  every   169 

Austro-Hungary.        166,463 

156 

1  in  every 
1,067 

570 

1  in  every  29^ 

Other  Persons. 

Killed. 

Injured. 

Total 
Killed. 

Total  Injured. 

United  States  ...           .... 

3538 

4,206 

6.335 

29027 

Germany  

226 

205 

726 

2,452 

Austro-Hungary  

163 

110 

223 

733 

Over  nine  times  as  many  were  injured,  and  over  six 


NATIONAL  OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS.       j7 

times  as  many  were  killed  in  the  United  States  as  in 
Germany  and  Austro- Hungary  combined.  Why  is 
this?  Simply  because  money  is  preferred  to  human 
life.  Dividends  are  of  more  importance  to  the  man- 
agers than  the  application  of  safety  couplers,  auto- 
matic brakes,  and  the  proper  guarding  of  crossings 
in  cities.*  Under  public  ownership  safety  would  be 
the  first  consideration,  all  the  modern  appliances 
would  be  adopted,  and  men  enough  employed  so  that 
exhaustion  through  overwork  would  be  unknown.  It 
is  this  latter  which  is  the  direct  cause  of  many  dis 
asters.  It  is  six  times  as  dangerous  to  be  a  passen 
ger  here  as  in  Austro-Hungaty,  and  eight  times  as 
dangerous  as  it  is  in  Germany.  It  is  four  times  as 
dangerous  to  be  an  employee  here  as  in  Germany 
and  seven  times  as  dangerous  as  in  Austro  Hungary. 
Not  safety  but  dividends  are  the  chief  concern  of 
private  management  of  railroads. 
"Public  safety  demands  public  ownership." 
There  are  many  other  advantages  to  be  gained  by 
public  ownership.  For  instance,  the  interests  of  the 
employees  would  be  better  subserved  under  govern- 
ment ownership,  as  the  government  always  pays 
higher  wages  for  shorter  hours  work  than  do  private 
corporations.  But  lack  of  space  forbids  further  con- 
sideration of  this  point. 

It  seems  to  me  impossible  for  any  unprejudiced 
person  to  absorb  the  facts  already  presented  and  not 
be  heartily  in  favor  of  the  nationalization  of  our  rail- 
way system. 

XII. — OBJECTIONS  CONSIDERED. 
And  now  in  conclusion,  let  us  consider  the  objec 

*The  report  of  June  30,  1895,  shows  that  out  of  a  total  equipment  of  1,806,000 
locomotives  and  cars  only  362,000  were  fitted  with  train  breaks  and  408,000  with 
automatic  couplers. 


38       NA  T1ONAL  O  WNERSHIPl  OF  RAIL  WA  VS. 

tions  usually  raised  against  public  ownership. 

i.  "  Under  government  ownership  there  would  be 
less  progress  than  under  private  ownership." 

One  need  but  glance  at  the  postal  service  to  see  the 
fallacy  of  this  proposition.  The  claim  is  well  refuted 
by  C.  W.  Davis,  in  the  following  words,  "  Instead  of 
national  ownership  being  a  hindrance  to  improve 
ment  and  enterprise  the  results  in  Australia  prove 
the  contrary,  as  in  Victoria  the  government  railways 
are  already  provided  with  interlocking  plants  at  all 
grade  crossings  and  one  line  does  not  have  to  wait  the 
motion  of  another,  but  all  are  governed  by  an  active 
and  enlightened  policy  which  adopts  all  beneficial 
improvements,  appliances  or  modes  of  administration 
that  will  add  either  to  the  public  safety,  comfort  or 
convenience."  We  find,  also,  that  government  owner- 
ship is  superior  to  private  ownership  in  the  supply  of 
transportation  facilities.  We  learn  from  the  Inter- 
State  Commerce  Commission  of  1892  that  for  every 
100  squares  miles  of  territory,  Great  Britian,  with 
private  ownership,  has  16.52  miles  ;  France,  11.23  miles. 
The  United  States,  5.67  miles  ;  Belgium,  with  govern- 
ment ownership,  28  71  miles.  Of  course,  comparison 
with  this  country  is  hardly  fair.  But,  compared  with 
our  best  supplied  states,  New  York  with  16.19  miles, 
Illinois  with  18.25  miles  and  New  Jersey  with  27.71 
miles,  and  still  Belgium  holds  the  lead,  having  for  its 
area  more  miles  of  railway  than  any  other  country  in 
the  world. 

It  may  be  thought  that  the  cost  of  construction  and 
operation  of  railways  is  less  in  the  old  countries  than 

NOTE.— In  the  United  States,  for  year  ending  June  30,  1893,  the  number  of  em 
ployees  killed  was  2,727;  injured,  31,729;  passengers  killed,  299;  injured,  3,529;  other 
persons  killed,  4,320;  injured,  5,435;  total  killed,  7,346;  injured,  40,393. 


NATIONAL  OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS.       3g 

here,  and  that  thus  they  can  afford  to  have  more  miles. 
But  this  is  an  error.  The  cost  of  construction  alone 
of  European  railways  is  estimated  at  three  times  as 
much  per  mile  as  in  this  country.  Take  the  one  item 
of  right  of  way,  here  usually  given  to  railroads.  In 
England  it  costs  on  an  average  $20.000  per  mile  and 
in  Belgium  $11.000.*  Also  the  cost  of  operation  is 
greater  in  Europe,  owning  to  the  larger  number  of 
men  employed.  Although  labor  is  cheaper  across  the 
Atlantic,  the  difference  is  more  than  balanced  by  the 
increased  number  of  employees  per  mile,  as  the  fol- 
lowing table  by.  Governor  Larabee  will  show  :  f 


Countries. 

Number  of  men  em- 
ployed per  mile. 

Average  wages  paid 
per  annum. 

Wages  paid 
per  mile. 

United.  Kingdom  

18 

$335 

$6000 

Belgium  

22 

210 

4  620 

Russia  

15 

240 

3  600 

Germany 

14 

250 

3  500 

France  

14 

220 

3  080 

United  States  

5 

555 

2  625 

As  to  the  supposed  insufficiency  in  speed,  Prof.  Ely 
negatives  this  idea  which  is  often  put  forth  by  ill-in- 
formed persons.  He  says,  "  It  is  certain  from  calcula- 
tions which  have  been  made,  that  the  average  speed 
of  German  trains  is  faster  than  the  average  speed  of 

trains  in  any  other  country  on  the  continent 

The  fastest  train  from  Berlin  to  Hamburg  makes  the 
distance  in  three  hours  and  twenty- four  minutes,  with 
an  average  speed  including  all  stops,  of  52.28  miles  per 
hour.  This  is  faster  than  any  train  in  the  United 
States,  and  is,  according  to  the  Engineering  News,  the 


*  Larrabee's  "Railway  Question,"  p.  370. 
t  Ibid,  p.  371. 


40       NA  TIONAL  O  WNERSHIP^  OF  RAIL  WA  KS. 

fastest  train  in  the  world.*  The  fastest  train  from 
Berlin  to  Cologne,  according  to  my  official  railroad 
guide,  makes  the  distance  in  nine  hours  and  five 
minutes,  with  an  average  speed  of  39.6  miles  per  hour, 
a  better  rate  of  speed  than  that  of  the  fastest  limited 
between  New  York  and  Chicago,  unless  there  has  been 
an  improvement  since  I  last  looked  at  the  time  tables 
of  these  trains.  From  Wiesbaden  to  Cologne  I  made 
35.48  miles  an  hour,  all  stops  included,  and  my  average 
speed  from  Cologne  to  Bremen,  likewise  including  all 
stops,  was  40.86  miles  per  hour. ..  It  is  very  doubtful  if 
in  traveling  north  and  south,  east  and  west,  in  this 
country,  one  could  make  as  good  time."  f  In  Governor 
Larrabee's  book  we  find  the  following  as  to  speed  of 
trains,  quoted  from  Rail's  Railroad  Encyclopedia,  "Berlin 
and  Brunswick  line  45  1-2  miles  an  hour.  Vienna  and 
Buda-Pesth  Railway  42  miles  an  hour.  Paris  and 
Calais  Railway  over  40  miles.  Official  reports  give 
the  average  speed  of  express  trains  in  Northern  Ger- 
many 32.2  miles  an  hour,  Southern  Germany  28.8  miles, 
Austria  27.8.  The  average  speed  of  express  trains 
will  certainly  compare  favorably  with  that  of  the 
United  States/' 

As  to  efficiency,  Mr.  Jeans,  a  high  authority,  says 
that  "the  lines  worked  by  the  state  are  those  kept  in 
the  best  order,  and  the  working  of  which  gives  the 
greatest  satisfaction  to  the  commercial  world,  and  the 
public  in  general,  as  regards  regularity  of  conveyance, 

*  The  fastest  regular  trains  in  the  United  States  for  a  short  distance,  are  those 
between  Washington  and  Baltimore,  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad. 
Their  speed  being  53.33  miles  an  hour.  The  run  from  Washington  to  New  York 
is  made  at  the  rate  of  48.0  miles  per  hour.  Since  data  furnished  by  the  "En- 
gineering News,"  the  Empire  State  Express  has  been  placed  on  the  New  York  Cen- 
tral and  Hudson  River  Railroad,  which  runs  from  New  York  to  Buffalo,  a  distance 
of  439  miles,  in  eight  hours  and  forty  minutes,  making  the  rate  of  speed  50.7  miles 
an  hour. 

t  "Congregationalist,"  July  21, 1892. 


NA  TJONAL   O  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  WA  KS.       41 

cheapness  of  transit,  and  the  comfort  of  travelers." 

2.  "Our  government  cannot  operate  the  railroads 
successfully." 

It  is  somewhat  amusing  that  such  a  claim  should  be 
made  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  the  government, 
through  receivers,  is  now  operating  25  per  cent  of  the 
whole  railroad  mileage  of  the  United  States,  and 
operating  the  same  successfully.  To  such  objectors 
the  words  of  Walter  Vrooman  should  be  sufficient, — 
"  We  claim  incompetency,  and  yet  we  boast  that '  we 
are  the  greatest  nation  on  earth  ! '  that '  we  are  the 
people/  that  'we  are  the  most  ingenious  in  mechanism,' 
the  most  fertile  in  resource,  the  most  daring  in 
method,  and  the  most  persistent  in  action.'  And  yet 
we  can't  run  railroads  !  We  can't  prevent  ourselves 
from  being  swindled  out  of"  untold  millions  every 
year!  Where  is  our  greatness  to  thus  submit  to  all 
manner  of  imposition  at  far  higher  rates  than  paid  in 
Europe,  Asia,  Africa  or  Australia  ?" 

I  believe  we  can  do  that  which  other  nations  are 
doing.  In  fact,  we  are  doing  it.  In  1894,  43,000  miles 
of  railroads  were  in  the  hands  of  receivers  and  thus 
were  being  run  by  the  government. 

3.  "Public  ownership  would  put  the  railroads  in 
politics*" 

This  obiection  might  be  a  little  more  valid  if  the 
railroads  were  not  already  in  politics.  It  is  difficult 
to  conceive  how  the  railways  could  be  more  in  poli- 
tics than  at  present.  This  objection  is  only  valuable 
as  it  serves  to  point  out  the  need  of  a  true  civil  service 
reform.  Of  course,  the  only  danger  in  increased  pat- 
ronage, is  because  business  and  politics  are  not  sepa- 
rated. If  civil  service  were  entirely  separated  from 
politics  and  placed  upon  a  business  basis,  there  could 


42        NA  TIONAL  O  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  WA  YS. 

be  no  danger  from  political  patronage.  The  patronage 
capable  of  abuse  by  any  party  would  be  reduced  to 
zero.  If  the  railroad  business  were  placed  under  non- 
partisan  boards,  with  true  civil  service  rules,  it  would 
be  entirely  removed  from  politics.  Every  industrial 
office  should  be  a  life  position,  subject  to  good  con- 
duct, with  a  right  to  have  all  removals  tested  in  court. 
This  done,  all  the  trouble  with  patronage  will  be 
relegated  to  "  innocuous  desuetude."  The  public  owner- 
ship of  monopolies  is  in  itself  a  tremendous  influence 
in  the  direction  of  reform  of  the  civil  service.  There 
is  no  way  to  compel  the  best  men  to  take  an  interest 
in  this  reform  and  in  public  questions  in  general,  like 
putting  vast  business  interests  into  the  hands  of  the 
government. 

We  have  but  to  refer  to  Birmingham,  Glasgow  and 
many  other  European  cities,  in  proof  of  this  asser- 
tion. These  cities  were  once  enormously  corrupt,  but 
since  the  socialization  of  their  natural  monopolies  they 
have  become  the  best  governed  cities  in  the  world 
Glasgow  was  full  of  the  worst  sort  of  toughs,  and  its 
government  was  exceedingly  corrupt  until  the  gas 
plant,  the  street  railway,  tenement  houses,  etc.,  became 
public  property.  Then  the  best  people  said,  "this 
thing  cannot  continue  ;  it  is  getting  too  serious  ;  alto- 
gether too  much  is  at  stake  and  we  will  not  leave  these 
corrupt  politicians  any  longer  in  power."  And  they 
did  not.* 

No  !  Nationalization  would  not  put  the  railroads  in 
politics,  but  rather  the  contrary.  To  say  that  enlarg- 
ing the  sphere  of  the  State  would  increase  corruption 
evidences  a  failure  to  trace  the  cause  of  the  evil  to  its 
source.  The  cause  of  corruption  is  private  interest  as 

*  kk  Philosophy  of  Mutallism,"  Parsons,  p.  32. 


NATIONAL  OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS.        43 

opposed  to  public  interest.  Self  interest  is  the  root. 
So  long  as  private  individuals  can  further  their  own 
interests  at  the  expense  ot  the  public,  there  will  be 
corruption.  •*  The  railroad  lobby  is  the  effect  of  which 
self-interest  is  the  cause."  Under  public  ownership 
there  would  exist  no  railroad  interest  as  opposed  to 
the  public  interest,  consequently  there  would  be  no 
railroad  lobby,  as  there  is  no  post- office  lobby.  Public 
ownership  would  notonly  remove  the  opportunity,  but 
also  the  incentive  to  corruption.  It  is  the  only  remedy 
that  will  remove  the  railroads  from  political  abuse, 
and  from  political  corruption.  It  is  not  our  public 
post-office  which  corrupts  our  legislatures,  but  our 
private  railroads.  Destroy  this  corruption  power  and 
give  the  government  a  chance  to  be  honest. 

In  Australia,  placing  of  the  tenure  of  office  under 
non-partisan  boards  has  ended  all  complaints  of  abuse 
of  patronage. 

4.  f<  It  is  unconstitutional." 

Not  so,  however.  Congress  has  a  right  to  take  the 
railways  for  public  use  either  under  the  military  power, 
or  the  post-road  clause. 

5.  "It  is  not  within  the  sphere  of  the  government 
to  operate  railways." 

Why  not  ?  Is  it  not  as  much  within  the  sphere  of 
government  to  operate  railways  as  the  postal  service, 
or  the  weather  bureau  ?  Anything  that  is  for  the 
public  good  is  within  the  sphere  of  the  government. 
The  government  is  but  the  agent  of  the  people,  the 
instrument  in  their  hands  to  secure  their  ends. 

As  I  have  said,  society  is  in  a^state  of  constant  pro- 
gress, and  new  relations  and  obligations  are  ever 
evolving.  Society  should  respond  to  these  new  duties 
and  gladly  accept  the  wider  responsibility.  The  let 


44       NA  TIONAL   0  WNERSHIP  OF  RAIL  WA  YS. 

alone  policy  means  the  lessening  of  interest  in  public 
life,  and  its  consequent  degradation.  We  are  suffer- 
ing to-day  from  extreme  individualism.  The  lack  of 
a  sense  of  responsibility  to  public  welfare  is  due 
largely  to  this  cause.  We  have  insisted  on  belittling 
governmental  functions  until  indifference  has  taken 
a  strong  hold  upon  our  best  citizens.  Is  it  not  time  to 
call  a  halt  and  inquire  if  we  are  on  the  right  track  ? 
It  is  this  blind  application  of  laisez  faire  that  is 
leading  us  on  to  social  disaster. 

6.  "The  cost  of  administration  would  be  greater 
under  public  management." 

This  has  been  fully  answered  by  showing  the  great 
economies  of  public  ownership.  Still,  I  will  insert  a 
table  given  by  Mrs.  Todd  which  is  of  great  importance. 
The  table  shows  the  percentage  of  total  working  ex- 
penses expended  on  administration  of  the  state  and 
private  lines. 


Countries. 

State  Line  per  cent. 

Companies  Line  per  cent. 

Germany  

9.40 

13.10 

Austro-Hungary           

650 

8.47 

Belgium  ...                       ...'"* 

5.05 

10.13 

Denmark                                  . 

689 

5.77 

16.16 

9.58 

Italy  

6.49 

8.76 

Norway  

7.30 

7.00 

Holland  

5.30 

10.35 

Houmania  

440 

10.80 

Russia  

927 

13.70 

With  the  exception  of  France,  which  owns  only  the 
feeders  to  the  great  trunk  lines,  the  above  table  shows 
the  great  economy  in  administration  secured  in  mobt 
of  the  countries  by  public  management  of  the  rail- 
roads. 

7.  "  The  railways  should  be  left  to  free  competi- 
tion." 


NATIONAL   OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS.       4$ 

As  the  railway  business  is  a  natural  monopoly,  it  is 
not  Mibject  to  successful  competition.  All  such  efforts 
end  either  in  combination  or  ruin.  Whenever  compe- 
tition is  attempted  it  is  simply  a  war  —  a  struggle  tor 
mastery  —  and  is  certain  to  end.  The  history  of  the 
West  Shore  and  Nickel  Plate  roads  is  a,notable  illustra- 
tion. It  is  estimated  that  $200,000,000  was  wasted  in 
this  experiment. 

No  !  Competition  is  foreign  to  all  natural  monopo- 
lies. England  is  probably  the  best  country  in  which 
to  study  the  effect  of  competition  on  railroads.  Prof. 
Cohn,  the  noted  authority  on  English  railways,  has 
shown  that  the  effect  of  competition,  in  every  case,  has 
been  to  increase  charges.  The  whole  tendency  in  rail- 
roads is  toward  combination  and  monopoly.  Of  the 
40,000  railroad  stations  not  more  than  4,000  are  junc- 
tions, and  even  at  such  the  ingenuity  of  the  managers 
has  developed  a  system  of  "pooling"  the  traffic,  so  that 
rates  at  competitive  points  are  now  under  control. 

As  such  a  business  is  non  competitive  in  character, 
the  result  of  turning  it  over  to  private  corporations 
could  be  naught  else  than  harmful.  '  The  railway 
transportation  under  our  present  conditions  is  to  the 
industrial  world,  what  the  atmosphere  is  to  the  physi- 
cal world,  it  pervades  and  is  essential  to  all  indus- 
tries."* Who  would  consent  to  allow  a  few  men  to 
dictate  to  him,  upon  what  terms  the  air  shall  be 
breathed  ? 

All  tnese  objections  were  heard  in  Prussia,  before 
the  government  took  possession  of  the  roads,  but  pub- 
lic ownership  has  shown  them  to  have  been  ground- 
less. Prof.  Cohn,  of  the  University  oi  Goettingen, 
the  general  sentiment  when  he  says,  that  in 


*  "Railway  Problems;"  p.  81. 


46        NATIONAL  OWNERSHIP  OF 

Prussia  the  question  of  state  ownership  and  man- 
agement of  railways  has  been  settled  by  the  test  of 
experience,  f 

CONCLUSION, 

The  trend  of  opinion  in  this  country  today  is  strong- 
ly in  favor  of  government  ownership.  People  are  be- 
ginning to  realize  that  the  full  benefit  of  the  railways 
can  only  be  secured  by  making  them  public  property, 
owned  and  managed  by  society  in  the  interests  of  so- 
ciety. 

The  rights  of  the  people  can  no  longer  be  obscured 
by  false  issues.  The  "  innocent  shareholder  "  and  the 
"  widow  and  orphan  "  plea  have  done  excellent  ser- 
vice in  the  past  for  unscrupulous  men  in  the  perpetra 
tion  of  their  schemes.  It  is  often  said  that  the  re- 
covery of  all  the  peoples  property  which  has  been 
fraudently  obtained  would,  in  many  instances,  work 
hardship.  Perhaps,  in  a  few  cases,  this  may  be  true. 
But  for  everyone  who  would  thus  suffer  there  are  now 
thousands  who  suffer.  Are  not  the  interests  of  the 
majority  to  be  looked  after  ?  Shall  we  continue  to 
leave  a  few  innocent  people  in  possession  of  stolen 
property  white  the  rights  of  the  multitude  are  ne- 
glected ? 

That  which  is  needed  in  this  country  is  a  public 
spirit  that  will  protect  public  property.  When  this 
spirit  has  been  aroused  we  need  fear  no  aggression  of 
anarchism.  There  will  be  little  difficulty  in  protect- 
ing the  really  innocent  shareholder.  Civil  and  criminal 
remedies  would  be  very  wholesome.  If  our  govern- 
ment should  begin  at  once  a  real  defence  of  public 
rights,  people  would  be  more  careful  in  their  invest- 
ments, and  make  needful  inquiry  regarding  the  acqui- 

t  "  Socialism  and  Social  Reform;"  Ely,  p  288. 


NATIONAL   OWNERSHIP  OF  RAILWAYS.       47 

sition  of  the  stock  offered  1'xir,  sale.  -If  any  cf  che  de- 
pendent classes  suffer  innocently  through  the  estab 
lishment    of    public    justice    such    could    easily    be 
indemnified,  either  by  public  or  private  offerings. 

This  plea,  however,  has  practically  no  bearing  on 
the  question  under  consideration,  although  it  has 
often  been  made  to  do  service  in  this  connection.  The 
truth  is,  the  stockholders  of  railroads  have  suffered 
nearly  as  much  as  the  public  at  the  hands  of  railroad 
managers.  Their  perfidious  relations  is  a  wound  in 
the  commercial  world. 

Let  no  one  be  deceived  or  diverted  from  the  issue 
by  clap  trap  arguments.  That  all  the  railroads  of  the 
country  ought  to  bs  under  one  management  is  ac- 
knowledged by  as  high  an  authority  as  Mr.  C.  P. 
Huntington.  The  only  question  then,  is,  shall  this 
management  be  national  or  corporate?  In  behalf  of 
national  ownership,  I  have  submitted  the  foregoing. 
My  concluding  word  is,  if  you  are  convinced  that  pub 
lie  ownership  is  the  true  solution  of  the  railroad 
problem,  evidence  your  faith  by  your  works.  Let 
each  do  his  part  in  a  campaign  of  education,  that  this 
much  needed  reform  may  be  speedily  consummated. 


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SELECT  LIST  OF  BOOKS  ON  SOCIAL  AND  ECONOMIC  SUBJECTS. 
Author. 


1. 

(  Physics  and  Politics.      An  application  of  the 

.00      j 

p  .<o 

2. 

BAGEHOT  — 

.  .-(     Principles   of    Natural   Science   to   Political 

(     Society.    By  Walter  Bagehot  

.15 

3. 

BELLAMY  .... 

.  .    Looking  Backward.    By  Edward  Bellamy  

.50 

1.00 

4. 

BIRXBECK... 

j  Historical  Sketch  of  the  Distribution  of  Land  in 
*  *  1     England.    By  William  Lloyd  Birkbeck,  M.A.  . 

.15 

5. 

BLACK  

|  Ultimate  Finance  :  A  true  theory  of  Co-oper- 
'  *  (     ation.    By  William  Nelson  Black. 

.15 

6. 

BLISS  

j  What  Christian  Socialism  Is.    By  Rev.  W.  D.  P. 
•']     Bliss  

.10 

7. 

BLISS  

..    What  Is  Socialism?   By  Rev.  W.  D.  P.  Bliss  

.05 

8. 

CAMPBELL.  .  . 

.  .    Prisoners  of  Poverty.    By  Helen  Campbell.../. 

.50 

1.00 

[The  Socialism  and  TJnsocialism  of  Thomas  Car- 

9. 

CARLYLE  — 

1     lyle.    A  collection  of  Carlyle's  social  writings; 
1    j     together  with  Joseph  Mazzini  s  famous  essay 
[    protesting  against  Carlyle's  views.    2  vols.  .  .  . 

.50 

1.50 

10. 

CARPENTER.. 

j  Civilization  :  Its  Cause  and  Cure.    By  Edward 
'  *  "j     Carpenter  

.15 

11. 

CHASE  

j  Letters  to  Farmers1   Sons  on  the  Questions  of 
*•(     the  Day.    By  "Pa1'  Chase  

.25 

.50 

12. 

COMMONS  

j  Social  Reform  and  the  Church.    By  Prof.  John 
{     R.  Commons  

.75 

18. 

DONNELLY  .  .  . 

.  .    Caesar's  Column.    By  Ignatius  Donnelly  

.50 

1.25 

*   A 

T?T  \T 

j  Labor  Movement  in  America.    By  Richard  T. 

"  |     Ely,  Ph.D  

1.50 

J  French  and  German  Socialism  in  Modern  Times. 

15. 

"\     By  Richard  T.  Ely,  Ph.D  

.25 

.75 

ifi 

j  Social  Aspects  of  Christianity.    By  Richard  T. 

"1     Ely,  Ph.D  

.90 

j  Socialism  and  Social  Reform.    By  Richard  T. 

17. 

"\     Ely  ,  Ph.  D  

1.50 

18. 

EMEHSON.... 

.  .    Essays.    By  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  .    2  vols  — 

.30 

.75 

19. 

ENGELS  

j  The  Development  of  Socialism  from  Utopia  to 
"  '  1     Science.    By  Frederick  Engels  

.10 

20, 

FABIAN 

j  The  Fabian  Essays.      American  Edition,  with 

SOCIETY... 

.  .  |     Introduction  and  Notes  by  H.  G.  Wilshire  

.25 

.75 

21. 

FISHER  , 

j  The  History  of  Landholding  in  England.    By 
'  *  (     Joseph  Fisher,  F.R.H.S  

22. 

GEORGE  , 

.  .  .    Progress  and  Poverty  .    By  Henry  George  

.50 

1.00 

23. 

GEORGE  

.  .  .    Social  Problems.    By  Henry  George  

.50 

1.00 

24. 

GILLETTE..  . 

.  .  .    The  Human  Drift.    By  King  C.  Gillette  

.50 

85. 

GRONLUND.  . 

j  The  Co-operative  Commonwealth.    An  Exposi- 
"'(     tion  of  Socialism.    By  Laurence  Gronlund.  .  . 

.50 

1.00 

SELECT  LIST  OF  BOOKS  ON  SOCIAL  AND  ECONOMIC  SUBJECTS. 

Author.  Title  of  Book.  Paper.   Cloth. 

a*     r.__  j  Our  Destiny.    The  Influence  of  Nationalism  on 

*>.    URONLUND  .....  -j     Morais  and  Religion.   By  Laurence  Gronlund.      .50      1.00 

27.  HERRON  .......    The  Christian  State.    By  Rev.  Geo.  D.  Herron..     .40       .75 

OR     TT™™  J  A  Traveler  from  Altruria.     By  William  Dean 

28.  HOWELLS  ......  -j     Howells  ........................................  50      1.50 

29.  HUGO  ..........    LesMise"  rabies.    By  Victor  Hugo  ...............  1.25 

<*A     TTTTTT  J  Social   Diseases   and   Worse   Remedies.      By 

......  ]     Thomas  H.  Huxley,  F.R.S  .....................  15 

81.  JEFFRIES  ......    The  Toilers  of  the  Field  .    By  Richard  Jeffries.  .  2.00 

82.  JEFFRIES  .......    The  Story  of  My  Heart.    By  Richard  Jeffries.  .  1.25 

«o      TB.™  J  Money  and  the  Mechanism  of  Exchange.    By 

J  ........  I     Prof.  W.  Stanley  Jevons,  F.R.S  ...............  30       .75 

f  Capital  :  A  Critical  Analysis  of  Capitalistic  Pro- 

duction.    By  Karl  Marx.    Translated  from 

<u     iTit»T  MAT>^T  the  third  German  Edition  by  Samuel  Moore 

34.  JLARL  MARX.  ...        ftnd  Edward  Aveling,  and  edited  byFrederick 

Engels.    The  only  American  Edition.    Care- 
(    fully  Revised  ..................................    1.20     1.75 

35.  KIDD  ...........    Social  Evolution  .    By  Benjamin  Kidd  ...........  25  1  00 

36.  KINGSLEY  ......    Alton  Locke.    By  Charles  Kingsley  .............  20  .75 

37.  KINGSLEY  ......    Yeast  .    By  Charles  Kingsley  ....................  20  .75 

88  LLOYD  -!  Wealth  against  Commonwealth.    By  Henry  D. 

»q     MTTT  j  Elements    of    Political   Economy.      By   John 

°9'    MlLL  ...........  (     Stuart  Mill  ......................  .  ......  .  .......  1,25 

40.    MILL  ...........    Utilitarianism  .    By  John  Stuart  Mill  ............  15 

4<     TvrTTT  (The  Socialism  of  John  Stuart  Mill.    The  only 

'  '  (     collection  of  Mill's  Writings  on  Socialism  ......  25       .75 

(  Ideal      Commonwealths.        Contains      Morels 

42.  MORLEY  .......  •<     *'Utopia,"  Bacon's  "New  Atlantis,"  and  Cam- 

(     panella's  lv  Lity  of  the  Sun  "  ..................  .40 

(William  Morris,  Poet,  Artist,  Socialist.     Con- 

43.  MORRIS  ........  -j     tains  "  Signs  of  Change.1'  •*  A  Dream  of  John 

(     Ball,  '  '  and  a  Biographical  Sketch  ...............  25       .75 

44.  MORRIS  ........    News  from  Nowhere.    By  William  Morris  .......  50      1.00 

A*     pnTTnnir  j  History  of  the  Science  of  Politics.     By  Freder- 

'  OLLOCK  .......  }     ick  Pollock  .....................................  15 

46.    POST  ...........    Driven  from  Sea  to  Sea.    By  C.  C.  Post  .........  50     1.25 

(  What  Is  Property  ?  An  Inquiry  into  the  Prin- 
ciple  of  Right  and  of  Government.  By  P.  J. 
Proudhon..  ....................................  1.20  3.00 


47.    PROUDHON  .....  •<     ciple  of  Right  and  of  Government.    By  P.  J. 
( 


SELECT  LIST  OF  BOOKS  ON  SOCIAL  AND  ECONOMIC  SUBJECTS. 


Author. 


{Darwinism  and  Politics.    By  David  G.  Ritchie, 

RITCHIE  AND 

M.A  

48. 

HUXLEY  

Administrative  Nihilism.     By  Thomas  Huxley, 

.15 

F.R.S  

fSix  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages.    By  James 

49. 

ROGERS  

E.  Thorold  Rogers,  M.  P.     Abridged   with 
j     charts  and  summary.      By  W.  D.  P.  Bliss. 

[    Introduction  by  Prof.  R.  T.  Ely  

.25 

50. 

Rns  

How  the  Other  Half  Lives  .    By  Jacob  A  .  Riis.  . 

!The   Communism  of   John   Ruskin.    Contains 

51. 

RUSKIN  • 

uUnto  This  Last,"  "Crown  of  Wild  Olive." 

and  selections  from  '  '  Fors  Clavigera  

.25 

52. 

SCHAFFLE  

j  The  Quintessence  of  Socialism.    By  Prof.  A. 
i     Schaffle  

.15 

53. 

SCHREINER.... 

Dreams.    By  Olive  Schreiner  

.25 

54. 

SPENCER  • 

(  The  Coming  Slavery  ;  The  Sins  of  Legislators; 
<     The  Great  Political  Superstition.    By  Herbert 

[     Spencer  

.15 

55. 

SPENCER  • 

The  Economics  of  Herbert  Spencer.    By  W.  C. 

.25 

56. 

SPRAGUE  - 

Socialism  from  Genesis  to  Revelation.    By  Rev. 
|     F.  M.  Sprague  

57. 

SOTHERAN  

Horace  Greeley  and  Other  Pioneers  of  Ameri- 
can Socialism.    By  Charles  Sotheran  

.35 

58. 

TAYLOR  - 

Profit  Sharing  between  Capital  and  Labor.  Six 
(     Essays.    By  Sedley  Taylor  

.15 

59. 

THOREAU  - 

Walden  ;  or,  Life   in  the  Woods.     By  H.  D. 
Thoreau  

'The  Industrial  Revolution  of  the   Eighteenth 

Century   in   England.      Popular   Addresses, 

60. 

TOYNBEE  

Notes,  and  Other  Fragments.    By  the  late 
Arnold  Toynbee,  Tutor  of  Baliol  College,  Ox- 
ford.   Together  with  a  short  memoir  by  B. 

Jowett,  Master  of  Baliol  College,  Oxford  

.60 

61. 

WAYLAND  

Things  As  I  See  Them  

.05 

62. 

WILDE  • 

The  Soul  of  Man  under  Socialism.    By  Oscar 
Wilde  

.15 

I 

'A  Vindication  of  the  Rights  of  Woman.    With 

63. 

WOLLSTONE- 
CRAFT  I 

Strictures  on  Political  and  Moral  Subjects.  By 
Mary  Wollstonecraft.    New  Edition,  with  an 

( 

Introduction  by  Mrs.  Henry  Fawcett  

.60 

64. 

WOODS  j 

Metzerott,  Shoemaker.    By  Katherine  Pearson 
Woods  

.75 
1.25 

.75 
.50 


.75 


1.75 


.75 


1.50 


1.00 


1,00 


1.50 

Books  in  SELECT  LIST  can  be  ordered  of  any  Bookseller,  Newsdealer, 
or  of  the  Humboldt  Publishing  Company,  64  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York. 


FORCE  AND  MATTER 


Principles  of  the  Natural  Order  of  the  Universe, 

WITH  A  SYSTEM  OF   MORALITY    BASED  THEREON. 
BY 

PROF.   LUDWIG  BUCHNER,  M.  D. 


A  scientific  and  rationalistic  work  of  great  merit  and  ability.  Translated  from  the  isth 
German  Edition,  revised  and  enlarged  by  the  author,  and  reprinted  from 

the  fourth  English  edition. 
One  volume,  post  8vo,  414  pages,  with  portrait,  vellum  cloth,  $1.50 ;  half  calf,  $3.00. 


Force  and  Matter, 
Immortality  of  Matter, 
Immortality  of  Force, 
Infinity  of  Matter, 
Value  of  Matter, 
Motion,          Form, 
Immutability  of  Natural 

Laws, 
Universality  cf  Natural 

Laws, 


CO^TTIEIfcTTS  : 
The  Heavens, 
Periods  of  the  Creation  of 

the  Earth, 

Original  Generation, 
Secular  Generation, 
The  Fitness  of  Things  in 

Nature,  (Teleology), 
Man, 

Brain  and  Mind, 
Thought, 


Consciousness, 

Seat  of  the  Soul, 

Innate  Ideas, 

The  Idea  of  God, 

Personal  Continuance, 

Vital  Force, 

The  Soul  of  Brutes, 

Free  Will, 

Morality, 

Concluding  Observations. 


THE  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE. 


Hie  Age  of  Reason ;  being  an  investigation  of  True  and  Fabulous 
Theology.  A  new  and  complete  edition,  from  new  plates  and 
new  type ;  186  pages,  post  8vo.  Paper  25  <5ts. ;  cloth  50  els. 

Common  Sense.  A  Revolutionary  pamphlet,  addressed  to  the  in- 
habitants of  America  in  1776.  With  an  Explanatory  Notice  by 
an  English  author.  Uniform  with  the  above,  15  6ls. 

Fhe  Crisis.  Written  in  the  "  times  that  tried  men's  souls  "  during  the 
American  Revolution.  Paper,  40  els. ;  cloth,  75  els. 

rhe  Rights  of  Man.  Being  an  answer  to  Mr.  Burke's  attack  upon 
the  French  Revolution.  Paper  50  els. ;  cloth  75  els. 

Paine's  Political  Works.  —  Common  Sense,  Crisis,  Rights  of 
Man.  Cloth,  $1.50 

Paine's  Theological  Works.  —  Age  of  Reason,  Examination  of 
the  Prophecies,  etc.,  $1.50. 

Paine's  Works.    Popular  edition,   i  vol.,  800  pp.,  cloth,  $ 3.00. 

Paine's  Complete  Works.  Consisting  of  his  Political,  Theological 
and  Miscellaneous  Writings ;  to  which  is  added  a  brief  Sketch 
of  his  Life.  Three  volumes,  1,537  pages,  8vo,  cloth,  $7.00. 

Life  of  Thomas  Paine.    By  GILBERT  VALE.      Cloth,    Ji.oo. 


"  Inquirendo    Island/' 


BY    HUDOR     GENONE. 


what  the  sapient  critics  say,  and  then  take  your  choice  t 

11 A  broad  burlesque  of  Christian  symbolism.  The  book  fails  from  the  begin- 
ning."— Independent. 

41  A  singular  and  unique  volume,  setting  forth  the  folly  of  Materialism,  and 
seeking  to  divest  religion  of  superstitious  views  and  ceremonies."— Zion's 
Herald. 

44  A  watery  book— weak  and  insipid."— The  Church,  Philadelphia. 

"  An  ingenious  phantasy,  in  which  while  exposing  the  weakness  associated 
with  manv  forms  of  relierion,  the  author  reverently  exalts  what  he  regards  as 
essential  truth." — Episcopal  Recorder. 

14  Grossly  and  offensively  shocking  to  taste  and  propriety— stupid  and  vul- 
gar blasphemy."— Churchman,  New  York. 

44  A  book  with  a  useful  purpose." — Congregationalist. 

41  The  author— an  adventurous  Atheist— sees  only  mockery  and  sham  in  the 
Christian  Church  and  the  worship  of  God."— Brooklyn  Eagle. 

14  The  purpose  of  the  book  is  to  elevate  the  simple  truths  of  Christianity."— 
Advance,  Chicago. 

44  Linked  foolishness  long  drawn  out."— New  Orleans  Times-Democrat. 
41  Not  wanting  in  a  spirit  of  full  reverence  for  the  essential  truths  of  God's 
universe." — Christian  Register. 

44  An  attack  on  revealed  religion." — N.  Y.  Times. 

44  A  sincerely  devotional  frame  of  mind  is  manifested  in  these  pages." — New 
York  Telegram. 

44  We  sympathize  with  the  fear  expressed  in  the  'postface*  that  the  effect 
upon  the  world  may  be  pernicious."— Interior,  Chicago. 

44  Refreshing  as  a  sight  of  Beulah  land  itself."— Hartford  Post, 


353  pages.    Paper,  50  cents  ;  cloth, 


'  NEWS  FROM  NOWHERE.' 

A   Romance  of  Voluntary  Socialism. 

By  WILLIAM  MORRIS,  Poet,  Novelist,  and  Social  Agitator, 

Paper,   SO   Cent®;  Clotfr,   SI. 


very  reader  of  "  Looking  Backward"  should  read  the  best 

reply  yet  made  to  it. 
41  Mr.  Morris  is  infinitely  removed  from  all  other  imitators  of  Bellamy's  book, 
le  is  as  much  aloof  from  th«m  in  the  matter  of  his  story  as  he  is  superior  to 
dr.  Bellamy  himself  in  the  manner  of  relating  it."— Philadelphia  Press. 


The  Humboldt  Publishing-  Co. 


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V 

&  Over  100,000  Copies  Sold.  3 

|         THE    FABIAN   ESSAYS.        j 

3  2 

h  Essays  by  G.  Bernard  Shaw,  Sydney  Olivier, 

Sidney  Webb,  Wm.  Clarke,  Hubert  Bland, 
Annie  Besant,  G.  Wallis. 

A  American  Edition,  with  Introduction  and  Notes  ^ 

^  By  H.  G.  WilshJre.  f> 

€ 
WHAT   THE    PRESS  SAYS.  () 

1  The  whole  book  deserves  reading  as  a  thoughtful  and  €) 

interesting   contribution  to    current   discussions.  —  Pall  2) 

3  Jlfa//  Gazette. 

>!  We  attach  great  importance  to  this  collection  of  essays 

Vr  as  a  fair  and  competent  representation  of  the   Socialist  U 

case.  —  Co-operative  News.  J. 

A  "We  think  every  minister  of  religion,  and  every  intelli- 

/^  gent,  earnest  Christian  onghtto  read  and  ponder  this  most  Iff 

important  and  fascinating  volume.  —  TlieMethodist  Times.  £) 

The  writers  of  the  "Fabian  Es&aj'H  in  Socialism  "  have 

produced  a  volume  which  ought  to  be  read  by  all  who 


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Neius.  h 
3                        By  far  the  best  account  of  the  basis  of  Socialism  yet 

m                    published  in  England,  and  by  their  temperate  and  "evo-  *? 

V                      lutionary"  spirit  cannot  fail  to  be  of  great  service  in  dis-  U 

pelling  much  misunderstanding  of  current  Socialism. —  J. 

m                   The  Academy.  Y 

<a                       After  a  careful  and  conscientious  perusal  one  is  com-  If 

pelled  to  admit  that  they  arc  written  with  conspicuous  £> 
ff                    ability  and  sagacity  from  the  Socialistic  point  of  view, 

\                    and  that  they  must  mark  a  departure  as  notable  in  social  f 

politics  as  the  famous  Essays  and  JReviews  were  in  theo-  f> 

ty                   logy.— The  Scots  Observer.  / 
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